
Class 
Book. 



1 



- - 



iUi 



, Copyright^ . 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT; 



A PRIMER OF 



ENGLISH LITERATURE 



BY 

ABBY WILLIS HOWES 



BOSTON, U.S.A. 

D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS 

1903 




THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS. 

Two Copies Receivec 

SEP 29 1903 

« Copyright tntry 

d*^. fltf, *qc3 

CUSS (X XXc No 

COPY B. ____ 







Copyright, 1903, 
By D. C. Heath & Co. 



PREFACE. 

This book aims at being what its title indicates 
— a primer, a first book. It strives to tell simply 
and clearly a few things, and to bring prominently 
before the reader only the greatest literary names. 

The author has found that young readers get 
very little from a book which presupposes wide 
knowledge on their part, or which deals with elabo- 
rate literary criticism. Much reading is done in 
the schools, however, and it is necessary to give 
pupils some chronological idea of the growth of 
literature and the place of authors. It is the pur- 
pose of this book to supply that chronology in form 
somewhat fuller than an outline, and yet le v ss bulky 
than the regular histories. While it gives no new 
point of view or " illuminating criticisms," it hopes 
to meet the need of all classes of students who 
wish to acquire in a straightforward way the gen- 
erally accepted facts of English literary history. 

ABBY WILLIS HOWES. 



CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

The Early Literature of Great Britain I 

CHAPTER II. 
From the Conquest to Chaucer (1066-1300) . . .16 

CHAPTER III. 
The Age of Chaucer, the Fourteenth Century . . .24 

CHAPTER IV. 
From Chaucer (1400) to the Reign of Elizabeth (1558) . 35 

CHAPTER V. 

The Age of Elizabeth (1558-1631) . . . .50 

CHAPTER VI. 
The Puritan Age ........ 78 

CHAPTER VII. 

From the Restoration to the Death of Pope (1660- 1744) 93 

v 



vi CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

The Age of Dr. Johnson (i 745-1784) . . . . no 



PAGE 



CHAPTER IX. 
The Age of Revolution ( 1 784-1 832) . . . .128 

CHAPTER X. 
The Modern Period (1832- ) 156 

Index 185 



LIST OF PORTRAITS. 

FACING PAGE 

Chaucer . . 28 

Shakespeare 66 

Milton .84 

Dryden 96 

Pope . '. . . 102 - 

Johnson 114 

Scott 136 

Byron 140 

Thackeray 158 ■. 

George Eliot 162 

Carlyle 166 

Tennyson 174 

MAP. 
Literary Map of England 182 



A PRIMER OF ENGLISH 
• LITERATURE. 

CHAPTER I. 

The Early Literature of the island of Great 
Britain is written in languages which we cannot 
read to-day without much study. Few words in 
these languages have an English sound ; their 
grammatical constructions differ from present 
usage, and in general we look upon them as 
words from foreign tongues. In order to under- 
stand why the language is in this condition, and 
how it came to have its present form, as well as 
to understand the character of the literature, it is 
necessary to know something of the people who 
lived in Britain in early times. 

The Celts. — The earliest inhabitants of Britain, 
of whom literature takes any account, were the 
Celts, a rude, barbarous people living in huts, and 
controlled in religious and judicial affairs by 
priests called Druids. 

The Celts are supposed to have descended from 
tribes that had their home originally in Central 
Asia. They wandered west till they came to the 
coast of France, where they halted in the province 
which has since been called Brittany. Moved, 
however, by the spirit of unrest, a part of them 



2 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

crossed the western water and peopled the coun- 
tries which we now call England, Scotland, Ireland, 
and Wales. They spoke a language somewhat 
like the modern Irish or Welsh. 

The Romans. — In the year 55 B.C., Julius Caesar 
and his Roman legions landed in Britain, and con- 
quered the Celts in the southern part of the island. 
Nearly a hundred years later, in 43 a.d., the 
Romans made more conquests, and altogether 
held sway over a part of the island for nearly five 
hundred years — until their armies were recalled 
by troubles at home. 

The Roman occupation, however, seems to have 
affected Celtic speech very little. The remains of 
the Latin of this period are found chiefly in names 
of places ; as, Chester, from castra, a camp ; Lin- 
coln, from colonia, a colony; and Portsmouth, from 
portus, a harbor; and show simply that the Romans 
controlled these localities. 

The Anglo-Saxons. — When the Roman armies 
were recalled, the native Celts in the south of 
Britain became very much troubled by invasions of 
ancient Northern tribes, the Picts and Scots. In 
their desperation the Britons called for help across 
the sea to their neighbors, who lived in what is 
now northwestern Germany and southern Den- 
mark. These neighbors were strong, brave, 
reckless sea kings — pirates they are sometimes 
called — ready for any adventure, especially if it 
promised gain. Three tribes came at different 
times to aid the Celts, — the Jutes, the Angles, and 



BEFORE THE CONQUEST. 3 

the Saxons. They succeeded in driving back the 
Northern tribes, and then, as the opportunity was 
good, took possession of the country for themselves. 

From the Angles, who were the most numerous, 
the country became known as Angle-land, or Eng- 
land, the land of the Angles ; and from the two 
tribes, the Angles and Saxons, the language was 
called Anglo-Saxon. The Anglo-Saxon tongue 
resembled the modern Dutch, for the tribes which 
settled in England and those of Holland are of 
the same Teutonic origin. 

The Danes. — In the eighth, ninth, and tenth 
centuries the Danes invaded England and made 
settlements; but as their language differed little 
from that of the German tribes already in the 
island, the speech of the people continued Anglo- 
Saxon, with slight modifications, until after the 
Norman Conquest in 1066. 

THE LITERATURE BEFORE THE CONQUEST. 

SOVEREIGNS OF THE PERIOD. 

Anglo-Saxon kings, 450-1017. 
Alfred, King of Wessex, 871-901. 

DANISH KINGS. 

Canute 1017-1036. 

Harold 1 1036- 1039. 

Hardicanute . . . 1039-1041. 

Celtic Literature. — The descendants of the Celts 
who were not conquered by the Romans are the 
modern Scotch, Welsh, and Irish ; and it is among 
these peoples, but particularly among the Welsh 



SAXON 


KINGS. 




Edward . . 
Harold II. . 


. . 1042- 

. . 1066- 


-1066. 
-1066. 



4 ANGLO-SAXON LITERATURE. 

and Irish, that we find the remains of Celtic 
literature. 

With all their rudeness and barbarity, the Celts 
possessed a love for stories and songs. Among 
them were many bards, or poets, who were held 
in particular reverence and who were protected 
both by priest and king. These bards composed 
much. Their work in verse, and the work of 
those who wrote in prose, comprise many thousand 
pages of manuscript which are found to-day in 
Dublin University, the British Museum, and in the 
possession of private individuals. These manu- 
scripts contain mostly stories of heroes, mytho- 
logical and real. They show the Celt possessed 
of strong imagination and true poetic feeling ; of 
a genuine love of nature, and a charm in expres- 
sion which to-day make the term Celtic, when 
applied to literature, a term of praise. 

It is not the purpose of this book to write at 
length of Celtic literature, but as Celtic blood is 
more or less mingled with that of the later English, 
so Celtic qualities show themselves in the later 
literature, and make many an English garden of 
song rich with the flowers of fancy. 

Anglo-Saxon Literature shows seriousness of 
thought and a touch of melancholy. It is more 
free from ornament, more plain and practical, 
than that of the Celt. 

The Verse Form. — Like the work of all early 
literatures, we find the first Anglo-Saxon composi- 
tions in verse form. This form differs from mod- 



BEOWULF. 5 

ern verse chiefly in the use of alliteration in place 
of end rimes. In alliterative verse certain accented 
words in a line begin with the same consonant 
sound. There are generally four accents in a line, 
three of which show alliteration, as — 

" The water welled blood, the warriors gazed 
On the /iot heart's blood, while the /torn sang 
A doleful death -note." 

In the middle of each line you will notice there is 
a pause ; here the line is often divided thus : — 

" The water welled blood, 
The warriors gazed," 

and then has two accents instead of four. 

Beowulf, the Epic of Heathen England. — The 

Angles and Saxons were pagans in their own 
country, worshipping gods who were the personifi- 
cation of the forces of nature. Woden was their 
chief god, and around him many others were 
grouped. They believed, however, in a life after 
death ; in Valhalla, where the faithful warrior 
might revel in a warrior's delights ; and in Helle, 
where the coward and traitor should be punished. 
They remained heathen for some time after their 
settlement in England, and to this heathen period 
of their existence the poem Beowulf belongs. The 
occurrences in the poem are supposed to have 
taken place in the sixth century on the coasts of 
Denmark and Sweden. 

It was the custom of the Angles and Saxons, 
after their boisterous sea voyages and battles of 



6 ANGLO-SAXON LITERATURE. 

different kinds/^to spend much time in feasting 
and drinking. As the mead cup passed through 
the hall, poets, who were part of the households 
of chiefs and kings, and who bore the name scop, 
made verses in honor of the heroes of their race ; 
lesser poets, called gleemen, who were not fixed 
residents of any household, but wandered from 
place to place, sang again the^sqngs which the 
scop had made. -It was the scop and gleeman who 
sang of Beowulf ; first, in their,, owh German coun- 
try, and later, in England. The poem was com- 
posed little by little, until finally it reached its 
present length of 3184 lines. 

It is not positively known whether the Angles 
and Saxons knew the art of writing or not, and 
we have nothing to show that the poem Beowulf 
was in written form when^it came to England. 
The earliest writing of the, poem dates from the 
eighth century, after the Anglo-Saxons were Chris- 
tianized, and was probably done by a Christian 
poet who cleverly united the different songs of 
Beowulf that he had heard sung. It is the oldest 
complete Anglo-Saxon work that we have, how- 
ever, and as its theme is not found among the 
German stories on the Continent, we proudly claim 
it as entirely our own, a first-fruit of English litera- 
ture justly worthy of admiration. 

The Story of the Poem. — This is really in two 
parts. The first part tells how Beowulf freed 
Hrothgar, king of the Danes, from the giant 
monster Grendel, who came stalking over the 



BEOWULF. 7 

misty moors to the king's mead-hall, and killed 
and ate the warriors who slept there after a night 
of feasting. For twelve years Grendel had kept 
the warriors in terror, and rendered the mead-hall 
practically useless, when wandering; seamen told 
the tale to Beowulf. At once he ordered his boat 
made ready, and sailed for two days till he came 
to the kingdom of the Danes. There he fought 
with Grendel in "the wine-house, gay with cups/' 
and overcame him by the strength of his hands 
alone. 

"... the fell wretch endured sore pain, 

A wide wound on his shoulder could be seen ; 

The sinews snapped, the bone enclosures burst, 

Glory of battle was to Beowulf given ; 

To his fen shades, death-struck must Grendel flee," x 

but the next night his mother came to avenge him. 
In the absence of Beowulf from the hall, she suc- 
ceeded in carrying off the king's most trusted 
friend. But Beowulf tracked her to her lair in 
a wild, weird, wind-blown region, where the waves 
dashed high at times, and the sea-snakes twined 
and coiled. He plunged through the waters and 
entered her sea-cave home. On the walls he saw 
a magic sword hanging. This he seized, and cut- 
ting off the heads of the dead Grendel and his 
mother, he bore them back in triumph to Hrothgar 
and his thanes. 

The second part of the poem tells us that, after- 
ward, in his own land, Beowulf became king and 

1 Morley, Vol. I. 



8 ANGLO-SAXON LITERATURE. 

ruled for fifty years, and that, in his old age, in 
order to save his people from its wrath, he went 
out and fought with a fire-breathing dragon. He 
succeeded in killing the terrible creature, but died 
soon after from the wounds which he had received. 
The poem ends with an account of Beowulf's 
funeral, praising him as the mildest of all kings 
and the "most bent upon glory." 

The Form of the Poem. — We have called Beowulf 
an epic. An epic tells a story in verse. It is gen- 
erally of considerable length, and deals with heroic 
action in a more or less elevated style. An epic 
which grows as Beowulf grew is called a national, 
or popular, epic, in distinction from the artificial, 
or literary, epic, which is the work of one man. 
All the poems of which we shall speak in this chap- 
ter have some epic qualities, though not one is so 
well constructed as to be a model in form. 

The Worth of the Poem. — While Beowulf is not 
the greatest epic that was ever written, it is great 
in the conception of the character of the hero, a 
man fearless, generous, living for the good of others 
in accordance with his highest ideals of honor and 
glory. It is furthermore exceedingly valuable in 
furnishing historical pictures of the life and super- 
stitions of the old Norsemen. 

Christianity and Literature. — Christianity was per- 
manently introduced into southern England by Au- 
gustine of Rome, in 597, and somewhat earlier into 
northern England by Irish monks, who founded 
churches and established monasteries there. 



QEDMON. 9 

Attached to these monasteries were schools and 
libraries, which made the religious institutions 
centres of learning, and as such the quickening 
force in early English literature. 

Scholars from one monastery visited those in 
another, exchanged ideas, and made what was 
known in one part of England common to all. 
Not only did monks exchange visits in England, 
but they travelled on the Continent as well. Many 
made pilgrimages to Rome, and as they passed 
through France, stopped at various monastic estab- 
lishments. At every resting place they obtained 
books, which they carried home to England. Thus 
the literary life of the early ages was broadened 
and unified, and the monks became interested in 
literature, and were for several centuries the writers 
of nearly all the books. 

Ceedmon the Poet of Christian England. — As 
the northern part of England, known as North- 
umbria, was the first to be Christianized, so it 
was the first to send forth a literature. Here 
in the monastery at Whitby, overlooking the 
North Sea, Caedmon lived as a servant in the 
seventh century. 

One night, when song and story were going the 
rounds in one of the halls of the monastery, Caed- 
mon was asked to sing. In shame and confusion 
he expressed his inability to do so, and retired 
soon after to his bed in the stable. Here he had 
a vision, and a voice said, " Sing, Caedmon, sing 
the beginning of created beings." Then we are 



IO ANGLO-SAXON LITERATURE. 

told that in his sleep he began to make verses 
in praise of God, and that on waking he remem- 
bered the verses and told them to the steward, 
who brought him to the abbess, and thus into 
public notice. 

Caedmon's gift of song continued to grow with 
use, and he paraphrased much of the books of 
Genesis, Exodus, and Daniel. Some critics think 
that the Paraphrase as we have it is not the work 
of one man, but that it was built up by different 
writers, as the poem Beowulf was. However that 
may be, parts of it contain true dramatic power, 
animation, and strong feeling, and show that the 
composer had many ideas as imaginative as those 
of the later poet Milton. 

In fact, there is a wonderful similarity, in point 
of imagination, between the Genesis and Milton's 
Paradise Lost ; though Milton wrote a thousand 
years later, and we have no proof that he ever saw 
Caedmon's poems. Caedmon, like Milton, tells of 
the revolt of the angels under Satan, of their ex- 
pulsion from heaven, and of their plans to seduce 
man to evil. The conception of Satan, too, is simi- 
lar in both poets. Each represents him as pos- 
sessed of high intellect, and, before his fall, excelling 
in brightness of person. Caedmon says that Satan 
was- — 

" wrought so bright 
That pure as starlight was in heaven the form 
Which God the Lord of Hosts had given him ; " 

and Milton describes him as the one — 



CYNEWULF. II 

" who in the happy realms of light 
Clothed with transcendent brightness didst outshine 
Myriads though bright." 

Cynewulf, the greatest of the Anglo-Saxon poets, 
also lived in Northumbria. Little is known of his 
life. It is supposed that he lived in the eighth 
century. Certain passages in his poems tell us that 
he was a wandering gleeman, who spent his youth 
in careless gayety, winning rich rewards of gold 
for his songs. Then followed a period of deep 
spiritual gloom from which he emerged with a 
firm faith in the truths of Christianity, and as a 
result wrote the poems Juliana, Elene, and The 
Christ. 

Juliana tells the story of a beautiful Christian 
maiden who suffered martyrdom rather than wed 
a heathen. Elene tells how Helen, the mother 
of Constantine, searched for the cross on which 
Christ was crucified, and after many adventures 
discovered it at last by its power to bring the 
dead to life. The Christ is the strongest poem 
of the three. It treats of the Nativity, the Ascen- 
sion, and the Day of Judgment, and with great 
earnestness calls upon all men to lead righteous 
lives. " O great our need," the poet cries, "that 
in this barren time ... we earnestly bethink us 
of the beauty of our souls ! " 

u O let us fix our hope," he concludes, " in that holy haven 
above, which the Lord celestial prepared for us when He as- 
cended into the heavens ! . . . No hunger shall be there, 
nor thirst, nor sleep, nor sore disease, nor scorching of the 



12 ANGLO-SAXON LITERATURE. 

sun, nor cold, nor care ; but there the company of the blest, 
most radiant of hosts, shall for aye enjoy the grace of their 
King and glory with their Lord." 1 

In each of the three poems mentioned, Cynewulf 
used runes, or letters of the Norse alphabet, in such 
a manner as to spell his name, and in this way- 
signed his poems. The following quotation from 
The Christ will show his method; each runic let- 
ter was named after some object : — 

"There to the assembly many will be brought 
Before the face of the Eternal Judge. 
Then will the bold [Cen] quake, hearing the King speak, 
The Heavenly Judge, speak words severe to those 
Who in the world paid light heed to His voice 
When fall [Yr], distress [Neod] found comfort easily. 
There many a one on the assembling place 
In fear shall sadly wait what doom of wrath 
He shall receive according to his deeds. 
Desire [Wen] shall fail, the treasures of the earth. 
Gold [Or] was for long, locked by the ocean [Lagu] floods 
Part of the joy of life, wealth [Feoh] upon earth." 2 

Anglo-Saxon Prose begins with Bede (673-735), 
a monk who passed most of his life at Jarrow, 
in Northumbria. He was a very learned man, and 
attracted many pupils to his monastery. Like 
most of the monks he wrote chiefly in Latin, but 
his last work, the Translation of the Gospel of St. 
John, was in English. It is from one of Bede's 
Latin writings that we learn the story of Csedmon's 

1 Whitman's prose translation. 2 Morley. 



KING ALFRED. 1 3 

miraculous gift of song, the subjects of his poems, 
and get some idea of his personality. 

King Alfred. — Though literary life in the north 
of England for a time flourished vigorously, it was 
killed at last by the coming of the Danes, who 
tore down the monasteries and destroyed the 
schools. Finally they were brought to terms by 
King Alfred, who was king of Wessex from 871 
to 901. The Danes remained in possession of the 
North country, however, and literary activity, for 
some time after their coming, was transferred to 
the south, to Winchester, King Alfred's capital, 
where King Alfred himself became the prime 
mover in the literary advancement of the English 
people of his time. 

He rebuilt monasteries, founded a school at his 
own court, and translated from the Latin many 
good books, one of which was the Ecclesiastical 
History of England, written by Bede. His most 
popular translation was the Consolation of Phi- 
losophy, by Boethius, a Roman who lived in the 
sixth century. 

Alfred did so much prose literary work that he 
is sometimes called the Father of English Prose. 
It was during his reign that the Anglo-Saxon 
Chronicle was begun, and it was probably owing 
to his influence that it gained a better literary 
form than it had at first. 

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is an English history 
written by a succession of monks. It is not writ- 
ten in the interesting style of our modern histories, 



14 ANGLO-SAXON LITERATURE. 

however, but is a dry record of events from the 
landing of Caesar, 55 B.C., to the death of Stephen 
in 1 1 54. The earliest writing dates from 875 a.d. 
The early history recorded is taken from Bede's 
Ecclesiastical History and from other Latin works, 
but from 875 the Chronicle is a history of con- 
temporary events. It is written mainly in prose, 
but contains occasional fragments of poetry, and 
is one of the chief sources of our knowledge of 
early English history.. 

Conclusion. — From the death of Alfred, until 
after the Conquest, we have no work of great 
literary importance. The south of England con- 
tinued to feel the influence of Alfred's work, and 
there some literary activity was kept up, but it was 
mostly confined to the efforts of the Churchmen 
Dunstan, ^Ethelwold, and iElfric to bring about 
reform in the Church. 

READING FOR CHAPTER I. 

For the history and the specimens of the literature of this 
period, students should consult Henry Morley's English 
Writers, Vols. I. and II., and Stopford A. Brooke's History 
of Early English Literature. 

Beowulf. Some knowledge of this epic should be ob- 
tained. Read at least the Grendel episode. Read Morley's 
translation (Vol. I.) and all that he says in regard to the 
poem. HalPs Beowulf (D. C. Heath & Co.) is a good edi- 
tion for students. J. M. Garnetfs Beowulf (Ginn & Co.) is 
a metrical line for line translation. 



SUMMARY. 



15 



LITERATURE BEFORE THE CONQUEST. 



Uncer- 
tain 
Date. 



Poetry. 

1. Fragments : — 

a. Widsith, the Wan- 

derer. 

b. The Seafarer. 

c. Lament of Deor. 

2. The Epic Beowulf. 

3. Caedmon, 7th century : Para- 

phases of Genesis, Exodus 
and Da?iiel. 

4. Judith, 7th century. 

5. Cynewulf, 8th century : Juliana 

Elene, The Christ. 

6. Song of Brunanburh, 938. 

7. The Fight at Ma/don, 998. 



Prose. 

Bede, 673-735 : Ecclesiastical 
History (Latin). 

King Alfred, 871-901 : Trans- 
lates Bede's Ecclesiastical 
History, and Boethius's Con- 
solations of Philosophy. 

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 875- 

1154. 

/Eifric, 10th century. 
Dunstan, 10th century. 
Wulfstan, nth century. 



CHAPTER II. 
FROM THE CONQUEST TO CHAUCER. 

SOVEREIGNS OF THE PERIOD. 

William 1 1066-1087. Richard 1 1189-1199. 

William II. ... 1087-1100. John 1199-1216. 

Henry 1 1100-1135. Henry III 1216-1272. 

Stephen 1135-1154. Edward 1 1272-1307. 

Henry II 1154-1189. Edward II 1307-1327. 

The Conquest by the Normans. — Across the chan- 
nel from England, in northern France, a band of 
adventurous Northmen had settled in the ninth 
century. They were granted control of a large 
tract of country, which was called Normandy after 
them. Here they became Christianized, inter- 
married with the French, and adopted French 
speech, manners, and customs. 

In the eleventh century they were considered 
the most brilliant and the most cultured people in 
western Europe. They were fond of rich dresses, 
were polite in their intercourse with their equals, 
aimed at graceful forms in the architecture of their 
castles and churches, held gorgeous tournaments 
as tests of knightly skill, and above all were lovers 
of learning. Though they came of the same 
Teutonic race as the Angles and Saxons, they were 

16 



FROM THE CONQUEST TO CHAUCER. 17 

much more quick-witted, and they were more re- 
fined in their ways of life. 

When Edward, king of England, died in 1066, 
his throne was claimed by Duke William of Nor- 
mandy. A battle was fought at Hastings, and 
William was victorious. He then became king of 
England ; and throwing aside Saxon rights, divided 
the control of the kingdom among his followers. 

The Change in Customs. — With the Normans 
came the feudal system of holding land. Great 
barons lorded it over large tracts of country, and 
the conquered Saxons became their vassals. The 
Normans, too, brought with them the order of 
chivalry to England. The young noblemen were 
trained to be knights ; and the proudest day in 
their lives was when they took the oaths of their 
order and rode forth, in gilded mail, in search of 
adventures. From the time of the Conquest, Eng- 
lish literature is full of their wonderful doings. 
They fought with dragons, besieged enchanted 
castles, contested hand to hand with other knights 
of marvellous skill, and rescued maidens in distress. 
Their tossing plumes, prancing horses, and glitter- 
ing helmets make the romances gay with life and 
color. 

The Change in Speech. — After the coming of the 
Normans the speech of the people of Britain was 
divided. Among the nobles, and in the law courts 
and schools, French was spoken, while among the 
Anglo-Saxons various dialects of their old speech 
continued to be used as formerly. The mixture of 



1 8 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

Anglo-Saxon and French, together with the Latin 
words introduced by the priests, finally produced 
our modern English tongue. But the change in 
language was slow, and three hundred years passed 
before it was accomplished. At first the Normans 
refused to speak what they called the barbarous 
Saxon. They still controlled Normandy as well as 
England, and they felt themselves still French, 
and kept in touch with French ways; but in 1204 
they lost control of Normandy, and were obliged 
to be content with the land they had last conquered. 
Saxon and Norman then lost their repugnance to 
each other, and finally the two races became one. 

In General two influences came into this period 
to widen intelligence and stimulate thought : they 
were the Crusades and the Universities. 

The Crusades were religious wars begun in the 
latter part of the eleventh century for the recovery 
of Christ's sepulchre from the control of the Turks. 
The men who went to these wars came back from 
their far-off travels with new plants, new stuffs for 
clothing, new customs, new stories, and broader 
thoughts of life developed by contact with men of 
other countries and with all classes of society. 

Until this period learning had been confined to 
the monasteries. In the twelfth century by the 
founding of Oxford University, and in the thirteenth 
by the founding of Cambridge, the work of the 
scholar was no longer kept by necessity within 
convent walls, though still controlled in a measure 
by the Church. 



AFTER THE CONQUEST. 1 9 

THE LITERATURE AFTER THE CONQUEST. 

The literature of this period is in three lan- 
guages, — French, Latin, and Anglo-Saxon. That 
in the French language shows most plainly the 
changes which the Conquest made. Here we find 
wonderful stories which tell of striking adventures 
in love and war. These stories are mainly fictions, 
but they often cluster about the name of some 
great nobleman or historic person, and illumine 
his deeds with a glory never seen on sea or land. 
Four groups of romances, as these tales were 
called, gradually developed and became very popu- 
lar. They were — 

1. Tales of Charlemagne and his twelve peers. 

2. The life of Alexander the Great. 

3. The siege of Troy. 

4. The stories of King Arthur and his Round 
Table. 

These stories were written usually in eight-syl- 
labled riming lines, and because of their verse 
form are called metrical romances. In time this 
French riming verse supplanted the old Anglo- 
Saxon alliteration. The prose of this period is 
mainly in Latin. It consists principally of chron- 
icles written by men at court. It, however, is a 
step forward toward the writing of true history. 

Of strictly English or Anglo-Saxon works, three 
are prominent : — 

I. The Poem Brut (1205), by the priest Layamon. 
Brut is a Welsh w r ord, meaning chronicle, and the 



20 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

Brut is a collection of old Welsh and English 
legends. It is alliterative in form with an occa- 
sional rime. 

The history of the poem is interesting. About 
1 140 Geoffrey of Monmouth, a Benedictine monk, 
produced in Latin a book which he called a history 
of Britain, though in reality it was a mass of ficti- 
tious tales. It contained an account of Brutus, 
the son of ^Eneas, who was said to be one of the 
first settlers in Britain, and stories of King Lear, 
Cymbeline, and King Arthur, the founder of the 
Round Table. In 11 55 Wace, a Frenchman, 
turned this history into French verse, and Laya- 
mon's Brut is an English version of Wace's 
poem. 

In telling his story, Layamon added much new 
matter to what Wace had already told in the poem. 
Especially is this true in regard to King Arthur. 
It is these Arthur stories in the Brut that formed 
the nucleus for the other Arthurian stories which 
were afloat, and made in time that cycle of romance 
to which reference has already been made. 

Little is known of Layamon's life. It is sup- 
posed that he lived near the borders of Wales, and 
that he gained from the Welsh many of the addi- 
tions which he made to the stories in the Brut. 
His version of the chronicle was evidently made 
from purely patriotic motives to keep alive among 
his people their past history. With this thought 
in mind, it is not strange that the Arthur legends 
were enlarged, for Arthur was a Welsh king. 



LAYAMON'S "BRUT." 21 

Layamon seems to have aimed at telling the truth 
about Arthur, for he says — 

" It is not all sooth nor all falsehood that minstrels sing, 
But this is the truth respecting Arthur the king." 

The Poem as a Whole is the greatest in this period. 
The legends are poorly arranged, but the expres- 
sion is often poetic. When Arthur took his fol- 
lowers to London, Layamon says: — 

" When Easter was gone, and April went from town, and 
the grass was rife, and the water was calm, and men gan to 
say that May was in town, Arthur took his fair folks." 

Arthur's dying words were : — 

" And I will fare to Avalun, to the fairest of all maidens, 
to Argante, the queen, an elf most fair, and she shall make 
my wound all sound ; make me all whole with healing 
draughts. And afterwards I will come again to my kingdom 
and dwell with the Britons with much joy." 

These words as they exist in the Brut are as 

follows : — 

" And ich wulle varan to Avalun : 
To vairest aire maidene. 
To Argante bere quene : 
Alven swifte sceone. 
And heo seal mine w r unden 
Makien alle isunde, 
Al hal me makien 
Mid halew r eige drenchen, 
And seofte ich cumen wulle 
To mine kineriche 
And wunien mid Brutten 
Mid much el ere w r unne." 



22 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

For a poem based mainly upon a French work, 
the Brut is remarkably free from words of French 
or Latin origin. There are not more than fifty 
such words in the 32,250 lines which the poem 
contains. 

II. The Ormulum, by the monk Ormin 

" pis boc iss nemmned Orrmulum 
ForrK j^att Orm itt wrohhte." 

" This book is named Ormulum 
Because Orm wrote it." 

Ormin's work is a handbook consisting of a 
metrical version of the Gospels used in the Church 
service. A sermon in verse follows each Gospel. 
A new religious enthusiasm which had sprung up 
made this book very acceptable in Ormin's time. 
It was written, he says, that all young Christian 
folk might follow aright " the Gospel's holy teach- 
ing in thought, in word, in deed." Its date is be- 
tween the years 1200 and 12 15. 

III. The Ancren Riwle, or Rule of Anchoresses 
(1210). This is a religious book by an unknown 
author. It gives practical rules for the domestic 
and spiritual life of three pious women, who with 
their servants withdrew from the world to lead 
the life of nuns. The following are some of the 
rules : — 

" Mine leoue sustren, ne schulen habben no best, bute kat 
one.'" — My loved sisters, you shall have no beast, but one 
cat. 

u Ne makie none purses . . . auh schepieft, and seouweft 
and amended churche clones, and poure monne clones." — 



SUMMARY. 23 

Nor make any purses, but shape, sew, and mend church 
clothes and poor men's clothes. 

"Ring, ne broche nabbe ze; ne gurdel i-membred, ne 
glouen, ne no swuch Mng >et oune deih forto habben." — 
Ring nor brooch shall you have nor parti-colored girdle, nor 
gloves, nor any such thing that is not befitting for you to have. 

"Ne beo ze neuer idel." — Be never idle. 

"Iren J>et lift stille gedereS sone rust. 11 — Iron that lies 
still soon gathers rust. 

This book is remarkable for the " simple, natural, 
eloquent prose " in which it is written. 

LITERATURE FROM THE CONQUEST TO CHAUCER. 

Poetry. Prose. 

1. Ormulum, about 1200, by the 1. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle until 

monk Ormin. H54- 

2. The Brut, 1205, by the monk 2. The Ancren Riwle, 1210. 

Layamon. 3. Lives of the Saints, 1210. 

3. The Owl and Nightingale. 4. Ay en bite of Inwyt, 1340, by 

4. Havelok the Dane. Daniel Michel. 

5. King Horn. 5. Old English Homilies. 

6. Handlyng Synne, 1303, by 

Robert de Brunne. 

7. Cursor Mwidi, about 1320. 

Students should consult : Morley's English Writers, 
Vol. III., for Layamon's Brut, and for information in regard to 
metrical romances. Also see : Ellis's Specimens of Early Eng- 
lish Metrical Romances ; Legends of Charlemagne, by Thomas 
Bulnncb, gives the stories in prose ; The Boys" Mabinogion, 
by Sidney Lanier, tells the legends of King Arthur ; Gautier's 
Chivalry, Chapter VII., gives the theory and history of chivalry. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE AGE OF CHAUCER, THE FOURTEENTH 
CENTURY. 

SOVEREIGNS OF THE PERIOD. 

Edward III. . . . 1327-1377. Richard II. . . . 1377-1399. 

The Fourteenth Century shows much political, 
religious, and industrial discontent in England, all 
of which is reflected in the literature of the time. 
Edward II. was deposed and murdered; the Hun- 
dred Years' War began ; a poll tax levied to carry 
on the war caused Watt Tyler's rebellion ; and the 
Black Death, a terrible disease, so called from the 
black spots it produced on the skin, swept over 
England and destroyed half the population. 

The effect of the Hundred Years' War is shown 
in the language and spirit of the people. The ob- 
ject of this war was partly to help gain the inde- 
pendence of certain , Flemish cities from the king 
of France. Saxon and Norman fought side by 
side, and the brilliant victories which they gained 
cemented a national brotherhood, which has never 
been broken. Thus the people of England became 
one nation, and the English tongue, so long de- 
spised by the nobility, now came into common use. 
In 1362 English was made the language of the law 
courts, and in 1386 English displaced French in 

24 



SIR JOHN MANDEVILLE. 25 

the schools. This period then may be said to mark 
the close of the formation of the language. 

THE LITERATURE OF THIS PERIOD. 
Sir John Mandeville (1300-1372). — This gentle- 
man, according to his own story, made an extended 
trip to the East, travelling as far as India and Ca- 
thay, and on returning put what he had seen and 
heard into book form. This book, called Voiage 
and Travaile y was first written in Latin, then in 
French, and lastly (1356), that " every Man of my 
Nacion may undirstonde it," in English. Most 
marvellous tales the book contains, and because 
they are so marvellous many critics believe that 
Mandeville never travelled ; some even think that he 
never existed — that the book has been made up 
by different authors who used ancient writings as 
the foundation of the tales. In one land which he 
visited, somewhere in the interior of Asia, Mande- 
ville tells us, 

' . . . " there growethe a maner of Fruyt, as thoughe it weren 
Gowrdes : and whan thei ben rype, men kutten hem a to, 
and men fynden with inne a lytylle Best, in Flessche, in Bon 
and Blode, as though it were a lytylle Lomb, with outen Wolle. 
And men eten bothe the Frut and the Best : and that is a gret 
Marveylle. Of that Frute I have eten ; alle thoughe it were 
wondirfulle : but that I knowe wel, that God is marveyllous in 
his Werkes." 

In an island called Pytan, Mandeville says the 
. . . " men lyven be the smelle of wylde Apples ; and whan 
thei gon ony fer weye, thei beren the Apples with hem. For 
zif thei hadde lost the savour of the Apples, thei scholde dyen 
anon." 



26 THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 

In another part of the Travels he says, "the Erthe 
and the See ben of rounde forme and schapp." 
This must have been a startling idea to most peo- 
ple of the fourteenth century, though to Mandeville 
himself the thought was not new, for he says that 
when he was young he heard of a man who went 
round the world. 

Mandeville's English is better than that of his 
predecessors, and the very improbability of his 
stories makes them exceedingly interesting even 
to-day. 

Piers the Plowman. — The writing which shows 
most vividly the life of the fourteenth century, is 
the Vision Concerning Piers the Plowman, written 
in the years following 1362. This is an epic by 
William Langland, in Anglo-Saxon alliterative 
verse. It is purely English in character, except 
that it borrows an allegorical form from the 
French ; for the poem is an allegory. In it ab- 
stract qualities are personified. Truth, Reason, 
Holy Church, Lady Meed, or Bribery are some 
of the characters. 

In this poem we have a picture of the corruption 
of the clergy, of the oppression of the poor by the 
rich, and of the gloom and depression caused by 
pestilence and political troubles. Langland rep- 
resents himself as having a vision of this condi- 
tion of things as he slept on Malverne Hills in 
Worcestershire, — 

" In a somer seson, whan soft was the sonne." 



JOHN WYCLIFFE. 2J 

He saw, 

" A faire felde ful of folke 

Of alle maner of men, \>e mene and be riche, 
Worchyng and wandryng, as \>e worlde asketh." 

After many scenes in the vision, Piers, or Peter, 
the Plowman appears, points the way to purer 
living, and finally becomes identified with Christ 
himself, whose love alone can save man from sin. 

This poem was very popular, and several texts 
were issued by the author, which differ somewhat. 
It was imitated by other writers, and often quoted 
by later religious reformers. We know almost 
nothing of the events of Langland's life, but his 
character must have been deeply earnest and 
sincere. 

John Wycliffe. — The man upon whom the gloom 
of the times took the strongest hold, and who made 
the strongest effort to improve conditions, was John 
Wycliffe, rector of Lutterworth and lecturer at Ox- 
ford. He organized a band of workers, known 
as "Poor Priests," who went about barefooted 
preaching God's law, and calling Church and State 
to repentance. To further his work he translated 
the Bible from Latin into English (1380). Be- 
cause of the religious reforms which he tried to 
establish, persecutions came to the followers of 
Wycliffe, but he himself was unharmed. After 
his death, however, his body was dug up and 
burned, and the ashes thrown into a stream which 
finally found its way to the Avon, but as an 
unknown writer said : — 



28 THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 

"The Avon to the Severn runs, 
The Severn to the sea ; 
And WyclinVs dust shall spread abroad 
Wide as the waters be." 

If by "dust" we understand the teachings of 
the Bible and the English in which Wycliffe wrote, 
the lines are true, for Wycliffe is the great prose 
writer of the fourteenth century, and the language 
of his Bible, read in all parts of the country, helped 
make the national English speech. 

Geoffrey Chaucer. — But life in the fourteenth 
century had a bright as well as a dark side. 
Feudal castle and grand cathedral stood in the 
landscape as well as the hovels of the poor. The 
knight still went forth in his metal armor to fight 
for love and glory and king. The deeds of the 
Black Prince in the French wars were sounded on 
every hand ; the tournament flaunted its banners, 
and chivalry in this period reached the summit of 
its glory. For in 1346 gunpowder was used in the 
battle of Crecy, and with the coming of firearms 
the knight gradually lost his place in society and 
became at last only a romantic memory. 

The writer in this period who reflects the brighter 
side of life, and who was himself a part of it, is 
Geoffrey Chaucer (1 340-1400), our " first warbler," 
as Tennyson calls him ; the " Father of English 
Poetry," and our " first writer of English." He is 
the crowning glory of the fourteenth century, one 
who makes a distinct advance in literature as 
literature. 




GEOFFREY CHAUCER 
1340-1400 



CHAUCER. 29 

Life. — Chaucer was the son of a wine merchant. 
He was educated as a page in the household of the 
Princess Elizabeth, and after he reached manhood 
received several commissions from the king, which 
caused him to live for a time in France, and later 
in Italy. While in these two countries he read the 
French and Italian books of the time, and on com- 
ing back to England he followed in his own writings 
some of the literary forms which he had learned 
while abroad. 

But his life on his return was not one of literary 
leisure. He held the office of controller of customs 
for London, and at one time, as clerk of the king's 
works, was obliged to look after repairs on build- 
ings, and to do work of like nature. From his 
writings we gather that he was in the habit of 
going home after his " reckonings " were made, 
and sitting for hours poring over books. He thus 
combined the life of a student with that of a man 
of affairs. 

During all his life Chaucer was connected in 
some way with the king, or the king's party. He 
was pensioned by the government in 1394, and 
again in 1399, but for a time he seems to have 
been poor, probably through some irregularity in 
appropriations. He died in London at the age of 
sixty, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, the 
first writer to occupy a place in that spot so famous 
now as the Poets' Corner. 

Chaucer's Writings. — It is customary to divide 
Chaucer's literary work into three periods. 



30 THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 

In the first period he was influenced by French 
literature. He translated French poems, namely, 
the A, B, C, Prayer and the Romance of the Rose, 
and imitated French writers in his poem on the 
Dethe of Blaunche the Dtcchesse. 

In his second period he followed Italian models, 
notably Dante and Boccaccio. Dante died in 1321, 
but Boccaccio was living when Chaucer visited 
Italy. He was the great story-teller of his age, 
and had written a book called the Decameron, in 
which were collected the stories supposed to be 
told by seven noble ladies and three noble gentle- 
men who fled from Florence to escape the Black 
Death, which raged in Italy earlier than in Eng- 
land. The Legende of Good Women, the Hous of 
Fame, and the Parlement of Foules are among 
Chaucer's poems of this period. 

Chaucer's third period is called English. In it 
he did his best work, and wrote the poems which 
are called the Canterbury Tales. 

The Canterbury Tales are so called because they 
are a group of stories told by pilgrims on their way 
to Canterbury. 

Toward the close of the twelfth century, Thomas 
a Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, was murdered 
in his own cathedral by certain nobles who sup- 
posed they were carrying out the wishes of King 
Henry II. After Becket's death he was considered 
a martyr and a saint, and pilgrims went every year 
in large numbers to visit his shrine at Canterbury. 
It is an imaginary company of these pilgrims that 



THE CANTERBURY TALES. 3 1 

Chaucer represents in his poem. They gather at 
the Tabard Inn in Southwark, across the river 
from London, and all start out together. 

The group represents nearly every social condi- 
tion. There are the Knight, the Squire, the Doctor 
of Physic, the Pardoner, the Nun, the Wife of Bath, 
the Miller, the Reeve, and others, twenty-nine in 
all. In the Prologue to the Tales, Chaucer, with 
great cleverness, describes each person, and further, 
tells us that at the suggestion of the host of the 
Tabard, it was agreed that each pilgrim tell two 
stories on the way to Canterbury, and two on the 
return, the prize for the best story-telling to be a 
dinner at the Tabard. Critics of to-day call the 
Knighfs Tale the best; but we do not know who in 
the judgment of Chaucer would have been entitled 
to the dinner, for not all of the intended tales were 
written, and therefore no decision was given in the 
poem. 

Chaucer's Originality. — The tales which Chaucer 
tells were not original with him, but were borrowed 
from many sources. Some were taken from the 
writings of Boccaccio, and some from the French. 
The idea of uniting a number of stories by some 
event which would bring story-tellers together was 
also not original; we have said Boccaccio used the 
same plan in the Decameron, and it was common 
with other writers. But in spite of the fact that 
Chaucer originated neither plan nor stories, we call 
him an original poet, for he retells the old tales in 
his own way, revealing much of his personality. 



32 THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 

Chaucer's Verse. — We have said that Chaucer 
is the crowning glory of the fourteenth century. 
He marks the end of the old literary period, and 
ushers in the new. With him the old alliterative 
poetry dies. He derides it as senseless, and in 
most of the Canterbury Tales he uses the heroic 
couplet, verse having five accents with the lines 
riming in pairs. 

Chaucer's English. — The English which Chaucer 
uses is a combination of French and Saxon words 
so like modern English that, barring the spelling, 
there is little difficulty in reading it. He retains 
some foreign endings to his words, however, and 
some extra syllables, which must be sounded in 
order to make the rhythm perfect. The following 
is the description of Emily in the Knights Tale ; — 

" Hire yolwe heer was browdid in a tresse 
Byhynde hire bak, a yerde long I gesse. 
And in the gardyn at the sonne upriste 
Sche walketh up and doun wher as hire liste. 
Sche gadereth floures, party whyte and reede 
To make a sotil gerland for hire heede, 
And as an aungel hevenly sche song." 

Chaucer's Greatness. — Casting aside old poetic 
forms and using more modern English do not 
make Chaucer, great, however. It is the spirit 
of his poetry, the humor, the lively descriptions 
of persons and of things, the clever character 
sketches, the knowing when to begin, when to 
end, and just what to say in telling a story that 
make him great. His poetry shows, too, more love 



GOWER. 33 

for nature than that of his predecessors. The 
gladness of the May-time, the song of birds, the 
simple flowers of the field, all find mention in his 
verse. He seems to write because he enjoys writ- 
ing, not because he must. Langland seems to 
write from a sense of duty ; the arrangement of 
the different parts of his poem is not good ; he 
is not an artist, while Chaucer is. 

John Gower. — Chaucer's work seems still more 
excellent when we compare it with that of his 
friend John Gower — "the morall Gower," as 
Chaucer called him. He wrote in his old age 
the Confessio Amantis (The Lover's Confession), 
the plan of which is like Chaucer's Canterbury 
Tales. Gower's verse is considered musical, but 
he writes as if there were no joy for him in the 
task, and his stories are dry and uninteresting. 

READING FOR CHAPTER III. 

Morley's E?iglish Writers, Vol. IV., should be consulted 
for information in regard to Chaucer and Langland, and for 
specimens of their poetry. 

Chaucer. — The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales should 
be read entire, and at least one of the Tales. Skeat's Chau- 
cer, edited by Bell, is a good edition. 

Mrs. Haweis's Chaucer for Schools, with extracts from the 
text, is good for giving young students a beginning knowledge 
of Chaucer and some acquaintance with the manners and 
customs of his time. 

From Chaucer to Ariwld, by Andrew J. George (Macmil- 
lan Co.), contains good selections from prominent English 
writers between the two authors mentioned in the title. 

For condition of the language, see Morris and Skeat 1 s 
Speci?nens of Early English, Part II. 



34 



THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 



LITERATURE OF THE AGE OF CHAUCER. 



Poetry. 

i. Lawrence Minot : Wars of Ed- 
ward ///., 1352. 

2. Alliterative Poems, 1360?: — 

a. William and the Were- 
wolf. 

b. Sir Gawayne and the Grene 
Knight. 

c. The Perle. 

3. William Langland, 1332-1400 : 

Vision of Piers Plowman, 
1362-1392. 

4. John Barbour : The Bruce. 

1375. 

5. Geoffrey Chaucer, 1340-1400: 

The Boke of the Duchesse, 
The Parlement of Foules 
The Legende of Good 
Women, Canterbury Tales. 

6. John Gower, 1 324-1408 : Co?i- 

fessio Amantis, 1392. 



Prose. 

1. Sir John Mandeville, 1300- 

1372 : Voiage and Trav- 
aile, 1366. 

2. John Wycliffe, 13247-1384: 

Translation of Bible, 1370- 
1380. 



CHAPTER IV. 

FROM CHAUCER (1400) TO THE REIGN OF ELIZ- 
ABETH (1558). 





SOVEREIGNS 


OF THE PERIOD. 




Henry IV. . 


. 1399-1413. 


Richard III. . 


. 1483-1485 


Henry V. . 


. 1413-1422. 


Henry VII. . 


. 1485-1509 


Henry VI. . 


. I422-I461. 


Henry VIII. . 


. 1509-1547 


Edward IV. . 


. 1461-1483. 


Edward VI. . 


. IS47-I553 


Edward V. . 


. 1483-1483- 


Mary. . . . 


■ 1553-1558 



The first part of this period is sometimes called 
the " age of arrest," for in it we find no great liter- 
ature. In both England and Scotland there were 
a number of weak imitators of Chaucer, but no 
strong, original work was done. 

The chief political event was the War of the 
Roses, which began in 1455 and lasted thirty 
years. During this war baron fought against 
baron for the possession of the English throne, and 
at the end, when the Houses of Lancaster and 
York, the two contending factions, were united 
by the marriage of Henry Tudor and Elizabeth 
of York, many noblemen had been killed. The 
general confusion of war, and the death of so 
many belonging to the leisure class, have usually 
been given as among the causes of the literary 
sterility of this period. 

35 



36 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

But it is hard to say just why this period is bar- 
ren of literature. It may be that changing ideals 
had something to do with it, for the power of feu- 
dalism was broken by the death of the nobles in 
the war, and chivalry decayed. It may be that 
the persecutions of the Church prevented people 
from writing, for in this age men were burned 
at the stake if they expressed religious opinions 
which were considered unsound. 

Whatever may have been the causes of literary 
poverty, this whole period of one hundred and 
fifty-eight years before the reign of Elizabeth may 
be called a time of preparation for Elizabethan 
writers. The imitators of Chaucer kept in circula- 
tion Chaucer's English, and thus prepared the lan- 
guage; besides this, four important events greatly 
influenced the coming literature. 

First, Printing. — Practical printing-presses were 
invented in Germany about 1438. John Caxton, an 
English merchant in business on the Continent, 
heard of the new invention and learned the art of 
printing at Cologne and Bruges. Returning home, 
he set up a printing-press within the precincts of 
Westminster Abbey, for this famous building was 
then a monastery ; and as the monasteries were the 
places where manuscripts were kept and copied, he 
thought this a good location for work. 

In 1477 Caxton gave to the world the first book 
printed in England, the Dictes and Sayings of the 
Philosophers. Many other books came in succes- 
sion from his press, some of them being the best 



CAXTON. 37 

of the old literature, and some the popular litera- 
ture of the day. He printed Chaucer and Gower, 
and in 1485 a new romance, Le Morte U Arthur, 
by Sir Thomas Malory. 

Caxton was not only a printer, but he did valu- 
able literary work as well. He made numerous 
translations from the French and Latin, and as his 
English style was good, he may be reckoned 
among those who have helped make the language. 

The effect that printing had upon literature was 
to give the language a more fixed form, and to 
encourage authors to write; for it now became 
much easier and much less expensive to make a 
book public: 

Second, the Discovery of America (1492). — This 
quickened the imagination by giving men a new 
country to think of, a land filled with new plants, 
new animals, new races of human beings, and 
teeming with fabulous wealth and fountains of 
youth. It turned attention from the old romances 
and legends and misty sciences of the Middle 
Ages, and led men to investigate for them- 
selves. 

Third, the Reformation in Religion. — Until the six- 
teenth century the Church of Rome controlled the 
religion of central and western Europe. In 15 17 
Martin Luther, of Germany, protested against cer- 
tain practices of the Church, and followers soon 
gathered around him. Reformation ideas spread, 
or arose, in France, Switzerland, and Holland. In 
England, where reform had been preached in the 



38 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

days of Wycliffe, many people sympathized with 
Luther and his followers. They took the Bible 
for their authority, and a new translation by Will- 
iam Tyndale went all over the land. 

But the separation between England and the 
Pope would not have come so soon had it not been 
for the self-will of the king, Henry VIII. He 
wished for a divorce from his wife, Catharine of 
Aragon, which the Pope refused, and Henry in 
his anger and determination brought matters to 
such a pass, that the clergy of England finally de- 
clared him to be the supreme head of the English 
Church, in place of the Pope of Rome (1535). 

The effect that the Reformation had upon litera- 
ture was, first, to fix the language through the read- 
ing of the English Bible; and, second, to make 
possible greater freedom of thought, which told 
powerfully in later centuries. 

Fourth, the New Learning. — At the beginning 
of this period very little was known in western 
Europe concerning the Greek language and litera- 
ture. A knowledge of them had been preserved, 
however, at Constantinople, which, when the em- 
pire of Rome was divided, became the capital of 
the Eastern Empire. Here the Greek Church 
flourished independent of the Church of Rome, 
and here many old Greek manuscripts were kept 
by scholars. In 1453 Constantinople was cap- 
tured by the Turks, and the Eastern Empire came 
to an end. Many Greek scholars now fled to 
Italy, where they were welcomed with enthusiasm, 



THE NEW LEARNING. 39 

and their manuscripts eagerly read. Here, too, 
travellers from different parts of Europe heard of 
their books, and gaining some knowledge of their 
contents, took that knowledge home, and, adding 
to it by means of study, gave a new literary world 
to the people of their time. 

Greek was first taught in England in 1491, at 
Oxford University. John Colet, Erasmus, Grocyn, 
and Linacre did much to foster the spread of the 
language and literature, which soon became the 
all-absorbing study. To this study of the Greek 
classics was added a revived interest in half-for- 
gotten Roman writers. A knowledge of these 
old literatures affected education, and more than 
twenty grammar schools arose as a result; but the 
greatest benefit came through freeing men's minds 
from old habits of thought. By reading the Greek 
and Roman books, the English became acquainted 
with new forms of poetry, new theories in medi- 
cine, religion, and philosophy, and new facts in 
history. 

Conclusion. — This general awakening of the 
mind caused by study of the ancient writers of 
Greece and Rome, the invention of printing, and 
the discovery of America, is called the Renaissance, 
or New-birth. It came not only to England, but, 
starting in Italy, its influence was felt in all the 
civilized countries of Europe. It had a marvellous 
effect upon the growth of political liberty, the dis- 
coveries of science, and the study of art, as well as 
upon the development of literature. 



40 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

THE LITERATURE. 

The Romance. — The middle part of this period 
shows many translations from the French ro- 
mances. The greatest one, Le Morte U Arthur 
(The Death of Arthur), by Sir Thomas Malory, 
has already been mentioned. This is a collection 
of stories relating the deeds of the old Welsh 
king, Arthur, and closing with his death. It is 
something more than a translation, for out of a 
mass of material, with much taste and judgment, 
Malory selected what he thought would make a 
connected story, and told it in his own way. It is 
the greatest prose work of the period, and the best 
prose written in English up to this time. It is the 
most complete collection of Arthur legends, too, 
which we possess, and has served for inspiration 
to the best poets of the nineteenth century. Ten- 
nyson used it as the basis of his Idylls of the King. 

Sir Thomas More (1480-1535) is a great prose 
writer of the last half of the period. He was one 
of the most enthusiastic supporters of the New 
Learning, and the friend and counsellor of Henry 
VIII. He wrote in Latin a romance called Utopia, 
which describes life in an ideal commonwealth, 
where men have freedom in religion and just social 
and industrial conditions. In this More makes 
public his dream of happiness for the human race. 
But his English work, the History of Edward V. 
and Richard III., deserves especial mention, for it 
is the first book in English that truly may be called 



ROBIN HOOD. 41 

history. It is something more than a chronicle ; 
it is good in construction, expression, and delinea- 
tion of character. 

The Popular Literature. — To the two popular 
forms of literature, — the forms which all classes 
of people enjoyed, — the ballad and the drama, we 
shall give our chief attention. 

The Ballad. — A ballad tells a story in verse. It 
differs from the epic in that the story is told very 
simply. It is not so long as the epic, and it was 
originally sung as an accompaniment to dancing. 
Its verse form generally consists of alternate rimes, 
with the accents, four in one line and three in the 
other, making what is known as common metre. 

The ballads were not new to this literary period, 
— for generations they had been sung in hall and 
cottage, — but to this time belong the first manu- 
script copies that we have. Some were printed 
by Wynken de Worde, who succeeded Caxton as 
printer. They were to the fifteenth century what 
the novel is to the twentieth. They told stories 
of love, war, and adventure, and recounted tales 
of superstition, woe, malice, and mirth. In fact, 
they reflected all phases of human life. 

Robin Hood. — A great many of the ballads were 
about Robin Hood, a famous outlaw, who, tradi- 
tion says, lived in Sherwood Forest, near Notting- 
ham, three centuries before this time, when the 
Norman rule was stern in the land. Various reasons 
are given for his becoming an outlaw, and different 
stories of his birth, life, and adventures are told, 



42 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

but all the ballads give him the same character- 
istics. They represent him as having great skill 
as an archer, as being fond of fair play, as loving 
the Virgin, and respecting women. He is bluff, 
hearty, and generous ; and though he steals from 
the rich, he gives to the poor, and thus satisfies 
his idea of justice. Most of his adventures take 
place — 

"In summer when the shawes be sheen 
And leaves be large and long," 

or in the " merry month of May." He is a hero 
particularly dear to English hearts, for he is dis- 
tinctly English : Beowulf was a Dane ; Arthur a 
Welshman. 

The English not only loved to sing of Robin 
Hood, but they loved to personate him and his fol- 
lowers, Friar Tuck, Scarlet, Little John, and the 
rest, as they danced the morris-dance about the 
Maypole on the village green. This form of dra- 
matic entertainment continued as late as the days 
of Shakespeare. 

Other Popular Ballads were the Nut-Brown Maid 
and the Hunting of the Cheviot. The latter, 
in common with the best ballads that we have, 
relates an incident in the border warfare between 
Scotland and England. Sir Patrick Spens, also, 
was much admired, and is a particularly fine old 
ballad. 

Conclusion. — It is not known who composed 
these ballads, but it is supposed that many were 
the work of gentlewomen. A class of wandering 



MIRACLE PLAYS, 43 

singers, called minstrels, sang them all over the 
land, and thus the people learned them. In re- 
peating them from one to another, words were 
often changed, whole stanzas were left out or 
added, and thus we have many versions of the 
same ballad. The Scotch versions often show a 
smoothness in expression, and a haunting quality 
in their lines which the English ballads lack. 
Two stanzas from a Scotch account of the birth of 
Robin Hood illustrate this smoothness : — 

" And mony ane sings cT grass, o 1 grass, 
And mony ane sings o 1 corn. 
And mony ane sings o 1 Robin Hood, 
Kens little whare he was born. 

" It was na in the ha 1 , the ha\ 
Nor in the painted bower ; 
But it was in the gude green wood, 
Amang the lily flower." 

The Drama. — The drama of this period differs 
greatly from the modern drama. This is the time 
when the Miracle, Mystery, and Morality plays 
and the Interludes flourished. 

The Miracle and the Mystery Plays date back to 
about 1 1 10, but in the fifteenth century they 
reached the height of their popularity. The name 
Miracle is given to both Miracle and Mystery 
plays, though, properly speaking, a Miracle play 
was a drama which had for its subject some miracle 
found either in the Bible or in the life of a saint, 
while a Mystery play was a drama which dealt 
with the mysteries of the Christian religion, as the 



44 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

incarnation or the resurrection of Christ. As 
none but the clergy could read the stories of 
their religion, the priests used these dramatic 
representations to teach the people. 

"Where the Plays were given; the Actors. — At 
first the plays were performed in the churches on 
some saint's day, or on some festival of the Church, 
and the clergy themselves were the actors. Later, 
as their popularity grew, and the church became 
too small for the audience, they were given in 
the churchyard. The Passion Play, still given at 
Oberammergau, in Bavaria, every ten years, is 
a survival of the old Miracle play. 

About 1268 the priests ceased to present the 
plays themselves, and they were taken up by the 
town guilds. The town guilds were societies com- 
posed of the different trades. Each guild had a 
patron saint, and it was customary on saint days 
to give a play illustrating the life of the saint. 
Finally Corpus Christi Day, in June, came to be 
recognized as the great day for dramatic represen- 
tation. This was a Church festival in which both 
clergy and laity joined, and all classes flocked to 
the towns. 

The guilds gave their plays on movable plat- 
forms, which were drawn from one street corner to 
another to suit the crowds. Each guild performed 
a different play. The object was to set forth the 
whole Bible history from Creation to Doomsday. 
A series of plays which did this is called a cycle. 
We have remaining the cycles which were played 



MORALITIES AND INTERLUDE. 45 

at Chester, Coventry, and York, and the series 
which was found at Towneley Hall in Lancashire. 
Sometimes three days, sometimes eight, were re- 
quired to present a cycle. 

The Morality. — Toward the close of the fifteenth 
century, abstract qualities, as Goodness, Truth, and 
Falsehood, were personified and figured in the 
drama in place of the miracles and mysteries. 
This allegorical representation was designed to 
teach some moral, and this form of play was 
called a Morality play. It was rather dry and 
uninteresting, as were some of the older plays. 
To add a little life, characters were introduced 
who furnished amusement, and who had little to 
do with the story of the play itself. A character 
called Vice created much laughter, especially when 
he attacked the Devil, who was usually one of the 
characters in the plays. From this Vice the mod- 
ern clown, or fool, has developed, and from adding 
these lively touches a new form of drama arose, 
known as the Interlude, which became very popu- 
lar in the days of Henry VIII. 

The Interlude. — The term Interlude was given 
not only to the humorous performance which came 
between the heavy parts of the old plays, but it 
was also applied to short, mirthful dramas which 
were given independent of the Morality, usually 
at the houses of the great on the occasion of some 
festivity. These dramas were so much enjoyed 
that they were considered a necessary part of 
every grand banquet, and came as an expected 



46 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

thing between the courses of a feast or at its end. 
John Heywood, who died about 1565, was the 
great writer of Interludes, and had charge of many 
of the revels at court. 

New Poetic Forms. — During this period two 
noblemen, Sir Thomas Wyatt and the Earl of 
Surrey, as the result of travel and study in Italy, 
introduced new poetic forms into English litera- 
ture. These were the sonnet and blank verse. 

I. The sonnet is a poem of fourteen lines, no 
more, no less. The first eight lines should develop 
one thought, and the remaining six lines should 
give some application of that thought, or some 
turn or change to the previous subject-matter. 

The following sonnet on the Grasshopper and 
Cricket \ by John Keats, will illustrate the defini- 
tion. It will be noticed that the theme of the 
poem, "The poetry of earth is never dead," is 
exemplified in the first part of the poem by 
the "grasshopper," and in the last part by the 
"cricket": — 

" The poetry of earth is never dead : 

When a]l the birds are faint with the hot sun, 
And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run 

From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead ; 

That is the Grasshopper's — he takes the lead 
In summer luxury, — he has never done 
With his delights ; for when tired out with fun 

He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed. 

The poetry of earth is ceasing never ! 
On a lone winter evening, when the frost 

Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills 



SUMMARY. 47 

The Cricket's song, in warmth increasing ever, 
And seems to one in drowsiness half lost, 

The Grasshopper's among some grassy hills." 

In Italy Dante and Petrarch had used the 
sonnet very effectively in the expression of their 
feelings of love for Beatrice and Laura, and in 
England, in imitation of these Italians, the sonnet 
became the poem of love. 

II. The simplest definition of blank verse is 
that it is verse without rime. In the hands of a 
master it has artistic qualities which cannot be 
explained here. The Earl of Surrey used the 
first English blank verse in 1553, when he trans- 
lated Books II. and IV. of Vergil's JEneid. 

Summary. — This period we find is an age of 
preparation. The imitators of Chaucer and the 
translators of the Bible helped form the language ; 
the introduction of the printing-press made it easier 
to distribute literature ; the discovery of America, 
the Reformation in religion, and the Renaissance 
quickened men's thought ; the interest in the bal- 
lads and plays prepared the people for the modern 
drama with its songs and well-developed plot, and 
the new poetic forms introduced from Italy served 
as models for more variety in expression. Thus 
things stand when Elizabeth comes to the throne 
in 1558. 

READING FOR CHAPTER IV. 

Ballads. — Students should read the famous ballads. 
Ward's English Poets, Vol. I., gives some of them. From 
Chaucer to Arnold, by A. J. George, contains seven. The 



4 8 



ENGLISH LITERATURE. 



Ballad Book, edited by Katharine Lee Bates, contains a rep- 
resentative collection, and is an excellent book for schools. 
Consult also the collections edited by Child and Gummere. 
Child's collection is the most complete. 

Selections from Malory's Le Morte D^ Arthur will be 
found in From Chaucer to Arnold. See Wright's edition for 
the whole work. 

The Drama. — See Pollard's English Miracle Plays, Mo- 
ralities, and Interludes. Read Everyman. See Symond's 
Shakespeare \s Predecessors for representative extracts of the 
Interlude, The Four P's, pp. 1 51-162. For further account of 
Mysteries, Miracle Plays, Moralities, and Pageants, see A. W. 
Ward's History of English Dra?natic Literature, Vol. I., pp. 
59-156, and Courthope's History of English Poetry, Vol. I., 
pp. 391-402 ; Vol. II., pp. 351-354, the Interlude. 



WRITERS IN THE AGE FROM CHAUCER TO ELIZABETH. 



Poetry. 

1. English Imitators of Chau- 

cer: — 

a. Thomas Occleve, 1365 ?- 

1450 ? : Gouvemail of 
Princes. 

b. John Lydgate, 1370-1440: 
The Fall of Princes. 

2. Scottish Imitators of Chau- 

cer: — 

a. King James I., 1394-1437 : 

The King's Quhair, 1423. 

b. Robert Henryson, 1425 ?- 
1480? : Robyne andMakyne. 

c. William Dunbar, 1450 ?- 
15 13 ? : The Thistle and 
the Rose. 

3. The Ballad: Robin Hood 

Ballads, The Nut-Brown 
Maid, Battle of Otter- 
bourne, Chevy Chase. 



Later Poets : — 

a. Stephen Hawes, 1483 ?- 

1513?: Pastime of Pleas- 
ure, 1506. 

b. John Skelton, 1460-1529 : 

The Boke of Colin Clout, 
The Boke of Phyllyp 
Sparowe. 

c. Sir David Lyndesay 

(Scotch) ?-i 55 8. 

d. Gavin Douglas (Scotch), 
1474-1522. 

Poets influenced by Renais- 
sance : — 

a. Sir Thomas Wyatt, 1503- 
1542: Sonnets and Lyrics. 

b. Henry Howard, Earl of 
Surrey, 15 17-1547 : Son- 
nets and Lyrics, The first 
English blank verse. 



FROM CHAUCER TO ELIZABETH. 



49 



Prose. 

i. Translations from French Ro- 
mances. 

2. Sir Thomas Malory, 1433- 

1475 : Le Morte U Arthur, 

1485- 

3. Reginald Pecock, 1390-1460: 

The Repressor of Over- 
much Blaming of the 
Clergy, 1449. 

4. Sir John Fortescue, 1395-1483 : 

Difference between Abso- 
lute and Limited Mon- 
archy, 1450. 

5. William Caxton, Printer, Edi- 

tor, and Translator, 1422 ?- 
1491? 

6. The Paston Letters, 1422-1505. 

7. Sir Thomas More, 1480- 

J 535 : — 

a. History of Edward J', and 
Richard III., 15 13. 

b. Utopia, 15 16. 



8. Translators and Editors of the 

Bible : — 

a. William Tyndale, 1485- 
1536. 

b. Miles Coverdale, 1488- 
1568. 

c. Thomas Cranmer, 1489- 

1556. 

9. Hugh Latimer, 1472-1555 : Ser- 

mons. 

10. Sir Thomas Elyot, 1490-1546 : 

The Governor, 1531. 

11. Roger Ascham, 1515-1568 : 

Toxophilus, 1544. 

The Drama. 

1. Miracle and Mystery Plays : 

The York ' Plays, The 
Towneley Plays, The Cov- 
entry Plays, The Chester 
Plays. 

2. Morality Plays : Everyman. 

3. Interludes, John Heywood : 

The Four Fs. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE AGE OF ELIZABETH, 1558-1631. 

SOVEREIGNS OF THE PERIOD. 

Elizabeth . . . 1558-1603. James I. . . . 1603-1625. 

Charles I. . . . 1625-1645. 

This age embraces more time than the reign of 
Elizabeth, but as certain literary characteristics 
which developed during her reign, including free- 
dom and grace of expression, fertility of imagina- 
tion, and breadth of understanding, continued for 
some years after her death in 1603, we call Eliza- 
bethan all the years from the beginning of the 
Queen's reign to the birth of Dryden in 1631. 

The England of this period was still " merry 
England," the land of country frolics, of the morris- 
dance, and the laborers' song. There were many 
holidays throughout the year which gave occasion 
for considerable festivity, when games and good 
living were indulged in at home, and bear baiting 
and shows abroad. Many of these pastimes and 
observances had been handed down from heathen 
times, and were regarded by some as out of place 
in a Christian country. There gradually rose into 
prominence during this period a class of men who, 
by a strict interpretation of Bible truths, sought to 

50 



THE AGE OF ELIZABETH. 5 1 

change the public taste, and to awaken the public 
conscience. Because of their efforts to purify 
church and society they were called Puritans. We 
shall hear more of them in the next period, but 
we must not forget that they existed now. It was 
a little band of these men who, toward the close 
of the reign of James I., turned sadly from their 
fatherland, and with stern faces sought a new 
home in a new country, in far-away Plymouth 
across the seas. 

Taking all things into consideration, however, 
we find this one of the most glorious periods in 
English history. The first days of the Reforma- 
tion, with their storms and bloodshed and smoke 
of burning martyrs, were passed. The Episcopal 
form of worship had been established, and a more 
settled order of things began. Religious persecu- 
tion was less violent, and more freedom of opinion 
was allowed. As a result, the people shook off 
their gloom and unrest, and began to feel more 
at ease, and to realize the fulness of life which 
the times had brought. 

Commerce and home industries flourished, and 
bold navigators in search of adventure and wealth 
sailed the seas to the newly discovered America. 
During this time Sir Walter Raleigh planted the 
first English colony in that land beyond the 
Atlantic which he named Virginia ; Sir Francis 
Drake sailed round the world ; Frobisher explored 
the coasts of Labrador and Greenland, and the 
whole English nation rose as a unit to combat the 



52 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

Armada, or armed fleet, sent by Philip II. of Spain 
to conquer England and secure the English throne 
for himself. 

A feature of the times which we must not over- 
look was the wonderful reverence which arose for 
the Queen. She was the first woman, with the ex- 
ception of her gloomy half-sister Mary, who had 
occupied the English throne. Then, too, she was 
unmarried, and a gallantry, which the Queen by 
no means discouraged, accompanied the actions 
of all men who came into her presence. Sonnets 
were made in her praise, poems were dedicated to 
her, and the proudest gentlemen in the realm aimed 
to secure her favor. When she travelled abroad 
splendid pageants passed in her honor ; universi- 
ties, nobles, and cities gave revels and plays, and 
one man, at least, flung his velvet cloak into the 
mud before her that she might walk dry-shod. 

But Elizabeth was something more than a queen 
of society ; she was a woman of learning and strong 
individuality. Under the instruction of her tutor, 
the renowned Roger Ascham, she had made rapid 
strides in the New Learning, and could talk with 
the philosophers as well as with the gentlemen 
of fashion ; she visited the universities as well 
as the castles in her land, and her influence sup- 
ported the scholarship and helped the literature 
of her time. Thus she was " Good Queen Bess " 
to more than one class of people, and though 
she had many faults, England owes much to her 
foresight. 



THE AGE OF ELIZABETH. 53 

THE LITERATURE. 

The literature of this period is marvellous in 
quantity and quality, though the best work does 
not come during the first twenty years of Eliza- 
beth's reign. These first years may be called 
years of experiment, when poets and prose writers 
were trying their hands at many things, and touch- 
ing lightly all forms of expression. 

This whole period was strongly influenced by 
Italy, whose civilization and literature were older 
and more highly developed than the civilization and 
literature of England. We find that it was from 
Italy that Chaucer drew his inspiration for many 
of the Canterbury Tales, and that from Italy the 
New Learning was brought into England. Italian 
influence was not entirely new then. But later 
travels to Italy for amusement and polish by young 
men of fashion, and the work of Sir Thomas Wyatt 
and the Earl of Surrey in introducing from Italy 
the sonnet and blank verse, created in this period 
a new literary interest. Not only were imitations 
of Italian verse popular now, but the works of 
Italian writers as well were much read. In this 
period Ariosto's Orlando Furioso and Tasso's Jeru- 
salem Delivered, besides numerous romances, were 
translated into English. These translations, with 
the other influences mentioned, helped create an 
Italian atmosphere. 

This age was notably an age of translation. 
Besides from the Italian, there were numerous 



54 THE AGE OF ELIZABETH. 

translations from the Greek and Latin. Promi- 
nent works are Chapman's version of Homer's 
Iliad and Odyssey and North's translation of Plu- 
tarch's Lives. These books served as models for 
English writers, and as inspiration for poetry and 
the drama. 

Added to these foreign influences, as incentives 
to writing, was the natural gladness of the English 
heart, full of interest in adventure and exploration, 
and bubbling over with the new life which every 
one felt. Under these conditions the English 
nation burst spontaneously into song, interlude, 
masque, and drama. Everybody made poetry, 
some bad, some good, and some so exquisitely 
beautiful that all the ages since have paused to 
listen. Conspicuously important was the ballad, 
which recorded every event of the day, trivial or 
weighty. It was often hawked about the streets 
and sold as our newspapers are. 

Thus the age was rich in literature, so rich that 
it would take many years to read it all. We shall 
speak only of a few great writers, who in their par- 
ticular departments stood above their contempora- 
ries. In poetry we have Edmund Spenser; in 
romance, John Lyly and Sir Philip Sidney; in 
prose of various kinds, Richard Hooker and Fran- 
cis Bacon ; and in the drama, William Shakespeare 
and Ben Jonson. 

Edmund Spenser (1552-1599) naturally comes 
first in our group of Elizabethans, for the publi- 
cation of his poem, the Shepherds Calendar, m 



EDMUND SPENSER. 55 

1 579, was the beginning of the great work of this 
period, and showed to England that among her 
hosts of ordinary rimers and lyrists there was 
one deserving of high praise. 

Spenser was born in London, of gentle blood, 
but his family was poor, and he was obliged to 
work his way through college. He swept the 
court and waited on the table, and, in common 
with all students who performed like duties, 
was called a sizar. After leaving college it is 
supposed that he went as a tutor to the north of 
England, and while there wrote the Shepherd } s 
Calendar. This poem is a pastoral, or poem which 
treats of country life. It is called a calendar be- 
cause each of the twelve parts into which it is 
divided is a record of a mood of feeling, just as the 
calendar of the year is a record of the characteris- 
tics of each month. It showed more true poetic 
power than any poem which had appeared since 
Chaucer. 

Just before this poem was published, Spenser 
went to London and there met Sir Philip Sidney, 
the most courtly gentleman of his age, and the em- 
bodiment of all the best ideas of knighthood, ancient 
and modern. Sidney belonged to the family of 
the Earl of Leicester, who was the favorite of the 
Queen ; he lived in a beautiful country seat in 
Kent, called Penhurst Place, and was himself a 
poet and a lover of literature. In his company 
Spenser spent some time, and opened his heart 
in regard to his thoughts and aspirations. He 



56 THE AGE OF ELIZABETH. 

wished to write more poetry, to give full swing to 
his imagination, to paint with his pen the moving 
pictures of his brain. As he strolled through the 
grounds at Penhurst, and studied with enthusiastic 
regard his young host, we may fancy that many a 
tale of knightly adventure and romantic love flashed 
before his mental vision. We know that even at 
this time his greatest poem had been roughly 
planned, and we feel sure that Sidney approved it. 

But Spenser needed some means of support 
which would bring him leisure to show the world 
the children of his brain. Through the Earl of 
Leicester, in 1580, he secured the position of secre- 
tary to Lord Grey, Lord Deputy to Ireland, and 
in that land of revolt and turmoil he passed nearly 
the whole of his remaining life. 

The castle of Kilcolman and three thousand acres 
of confiscated land were granted to him in 1586. 
The situation of the castle and the scenery sur- 
rounding it were charming, and well adapted to a 
poet's reveries. 

To this castle one day rode the great Sir Walter 
Raleigh, home from his voyages of adventure and 
plunder, and on a visit to his own magnificent Irish 
estate. Hefound Spenser writing a long poem which 
he called the Faerie Queene. It was full of marvel- 
lous adventures and deeds of prowess. Three books 
were already written. Raleigh was charmed. 
" Come with me to London," he said, "and have 
the poem printed." No whit displeased by his 
friend's enthusiasm, Spenser went. Raleigh took 



EDMUND SPENSER, 57 

him to court, and to Queen Elizabeth herself 
Spenser read his Faerie Queene. It praised her 
Majesty in many a flattering line. She was pleased 
and would be gracious, but her Lord Treasurer did 
not appreciate Spenser's genius, and thought him 
well paid for his rimes by a pension of ^50 a year. 
He was better paid, however, by the enthusiasm 
which came from the public. Amidst praises on 
every hand he returned to Ireland, where he cele- 
brated his visit to the English court in the poem 
Colin Cloufs Come Home Again. 

The year 1594 saw Spenser married: not to 
his first love, Rosalind, the English girl, "the 
widow's daughter of the glen," who rejected him 
according to the Shepherd's Calendar, but to Eliza- 
beth, an Irish maiden, to whom he wrote a great 
many sonnets, which to-day we call Amoretti. The 
Amoretti are wonderful outpourings of love, but 
the EpitJialamion, the marriage hymn which he 
wrote for his bridal, transcends them all, as it does 
all other marriage hymns in any language. In this 
last poem, love and exultation meet in the embrace 
of the highest art. We, too, feel the poet's joy as 
the lines rise to the refrain, and we wish with him 
that " the woods may answer " and " the echoes 
ring " his gladness. 

Spenser's work as a poet still went on after his 
marriage, and three more books of the Faerie Queene 
were printed, as was also the Prothalamion, a mar- 
riage hymn in honor of the double wedding of the 
Ladies Catherine and Elizabeth Somerset. But 



58 THE AGE OF ELIZABETH. 

now came days of gloom. In 1598 the Irish rose 
in revolt and burnt Kilcolman. Spenser, his wife, 
and children barely escaped with their lives — one 
child, it is said, did perish in the flames. They 
fled to London, and there in poverty, in a wretched 
inn, the next year Spenser died. He was buried 
in Westminster Abbey, beside Chaucer, with whom 
he ranks as one of the great poets of England. 
His funeral was at the charge of the Earl of Essex, 
and was attended with great pomp and display ; 
poets followed his hearse, and mournful elegies, 
with the pens that wrote them, were thrown into 
his tomb. " Prince of poets in his tyme " is written 
over his grave. 

The Faerie Queene. — Spenser's greatest work is 
the Faerie Queene. This is a romantic epic, telling 
many a story which is to be interpreted allegori- 
cally. Its form is modelled on that of the Italian 
poet Ariosto ; and many of its incidents are drawn 
from the Irish wars, which were carried on about 
Spenser's castle. 

It is hard to get the plan of the poem from the 
six books that were written, — it was intended to 
have twelve, — and it is hard to get an adequate 
idea of the poem from any definition in regard to 
its scope. From the preface to the poem we learn 
that Queen Elizabeth is the Faerie Queene, and that 
King Arthur, the old hero of romance, figures as 
Magnificence, and is typical of all the virtues taken 
together. The Faerie Queene holds court for twelve 
successive days, on each of which a complaint is 



THE FAERIE QUEENE. 59 

made to her by some one, and a knight is sent out 
after each complaint to right the wrong. Thus we 
have twelve knights, and the adventures of each 
knight make a book of the poem. The first book 
narrates the adventures of the Red Cross Knight, 
or Holiness. This book is really a complete 
poem in itself, and is considered the best of the 
six. 

In the poem we have knights and ladies, lions 
and dragons, dwarfs and giants, all blended in the 
rosy atmosphere of fancy. The music of the poem 
is exquisite, and the descriptions and pictures are 
wonderful. It is written in stanzas of nine lines, 
with the rimes in the following order : a b a b, 
b c b c, c. Each line, except the last, contains five 
accents. The last line contains six, and is called 
an Alexandrine. This form of verse takes its name 
from Spenser, and is called Spenserian. The fol- 
lowing quotation will illustrate it : — 

" At length they chaunst to meet upon the way 
An aged sire, in long blacke weedes yclad, 
His feet all bare, his beard all hoarie gray, 
And by his belt his booke he hanging had ; 
Sober he seemde. and very sagely sad. 
And to the ground his eyes were lowly bent, 
Simple in shew, and voide of malice bad, 
And all the way he prayed, as he went. 
And often knockt his brest, as one that did repent." 

Spenser as a Poet. — Charles Lamb called Spenser 
the poet's poet, meaning that Spenser appeals most 
strongly to individuals of poetic temperament. He 
has influenced strongly many of the true poets who 



60 THE AGE OF ELIZABETH. 

have lived since his time, and he will always be a 
delight to those who joy to revel in the halls of 
fancy and to listen to rhythmic, musical language. 
Lowell says : — 

" Whoever can endure unmixed delight, whoever 
can tolerate music and painting and poetry all in 
one, whoever wishes to be rid of thought and to 
let the busy anvils of the brain be silent for a 
time, let him read in the Faerie Queene. There is 
the land of pure heart's-ease, where no ache or 
sorrow of spirit can enter." 

John Lyly. — " Among the prose-writers of the 
age of Elizabeth, " says Edwin P. Whipple, " we 
do not include all who wrote in prose, but those in 
whom prose composition was laboring to fulfil the 
conditions of art." In 1579 appeared John Lyly's 
Euphues, the Anatomy of Wit, a romance written 
in a style which had a marked effect upon the court 
language and the literature of the time. This 
romance told of the adventures of a young Athe- 
nian who went to Naples for his education. It gave 
Lyly a chance to give his own views on love, friend- 
ship, and religion, and to show the corruption which 
came to youths from too much going to Italy. In 
language it followed the Italian style of the day. 
It was affected, full of alliteration and antithesis 
and " elegant imbecility." The educated ladies and 
gentlemen of Elizabeth's court were charmed with 
it because it gave them a language different from 
that of the common people. To talk Euphuism 
was the fashion of the day, and so great was the 



PHILIP SIDNEY. 6l 

success of Lyly's first book, that in 1580 there 
appeared a second part, Euphues and his England, 
and six editions of the whole work were printed 
before 1598. 

The step towards art, or good form, was this : 
the sentences in the book were condensed in ex- 
pression, epigrammatic, reading like proverbs, and 
they helped to check the diffuse style of the old 
prose writers. 

Lyly had many imitators, the most important of 
whom were Robert Greene and Thomas Lodge. In 
1587 Greene published a romance called Menaphon, 
and in 1590 Lodge published Rosalynde : Euphues* 
Golden Legacy. 

Philip Sidney (15 54-1586). — In 1580 Sir Philip 
Sidney began to write the romance called Arcadia. 
This was the year that Spenser went as Secretary 
to Ireland, and in which Sidney incurred the dis- 
pleasure of the Queen and absented himself from 
court. Because of this enforced absence, he vis- 
ited his sister, the Countess of Pembroke, who 
lived in the stateliest mansion in Wiltshire. With 
her he wandered among the groves and gardens 
of her handsome estate, and for her pleasure he 
composed the romance. 

Arcadia deals with country life, and, like Spen- 
ser's Shepherd's Calendar, is a pastoral. In gen- 
eral it imitates certain Italian and Portuguese 
romances. It is full of poetic prose, of wonder- 
fully smooth-sounding phrases, but as a story it 
lacks straightforwardness. One character scarcely 



62 THE AGE OF ELIZABETH. 

finishes the story of his adventures before another 
one begins his. Story thus becomes involved in 
story, until the main thread of the narrative is lost. 
It, however, taught writers how to express them- 
selves prettily, and has proved suggestive to those 
who seek to increase their stock of poetic phrases. 
Sidney never intended the work to be read by any 
one except his sister and her friends, but four years 
after his death, in 1590, it was published. 

We like to think of the life of Sidney, as well 
as of the romance that he wrote. He belonged to 
a noble and illustrious family, and became famous 
for his accomplishments, both mental and physical. 
He could converse intelligently with the wits and 
scholars, both of England and the Continent ; could 
fence and fight in a tourney with precision and 
skill. He was a pleasing courtier, and attended 
the Queen in her palace and when she went abroad 
on progresses through her kingdom. He witnessed 
pageant and masque and show, and was himself a 
romantic figure amid romantic scenes. Yet his 
many deeds of dash and brilliancy are overshad- 
owed by one act of supreme forgetfulness of self. 

In 1585 Elizabeth appointed Sidney governor 
of Flushing. The next year, in the battle of Ziit- 
phen, he was mortally wounded, and, as he lay faint 
and thirsting, a cup of water was passed to him. 
Much as he longed to taste it himself, he pushed 
it aside and offered it to a dying comrade with the 
words, " Thy necessity is greater than mine." This 
act has made Sidney more famous than his romance. 



FRANCIS BACON. 63 

Richard Hooker (1 5 54-1600) stands in this period 
for stately, dignified prose. He was an Episcopal 
clergyman, and the work on which his fame rests 
is a defence of the doctrines of his Church. It 
is called the Ecclesiastical Polity. The style in 
which it is written is commonly considered the 
best prose style that England produced at this 
time. It is often grandly majestic, yet many sen- 
tences are so long and so complex that it is tire- 
some reading. 

Francis Bacon (1561-1626). — Standing with 
Hooker as a great prose writer of this period is 
Sir Francis Bacon. He is a great thinker and 
a keen observer of men, too — the one who ap- 
proaches nearest to Shakespeare of all the men of 
his generation. 

His early life brought him in connection with 
the court and state affairs. His father was Sir 
Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, 
and his uncle was the famous Lord Burleigh, 
Queen Elizabeth's most trusted adviser. To make 
a statesman of the young Bacon, too, seems to have 
been the plan, for after a course at the University 
he was sent to France to study diplomacy and 
statecraft. His father died, however, while he 
was in France, and as his Uncle Burleigh declined 
to aid him, Bacon became a lawyer and set out 
to win a place for himself by his talents alone. 

In 1593 he was elected a member of the House 
of Commons, and showed himself the ablest speaker 
of his time, compelling the attention of his audi- 



64 THE AGE OF ELIZABETH. 

ence by his clear-cut sentences and logical ideas. 
In 1609 he was made Solicitor-General, and in the 
following years held various offices until he finally 
became Lord Chancellor and was made Viscount 
St. Albans. 

To reach the positions which he gained, Bacon 
did not always live up to the highest ideals of his 
conscience. In 1621 he was. impeached for taking 
bribes in his office as judge, was sentenced to pay 
a fine of ,£40,000, to be imprisoned in the Tower 
during the King's pleasure, and to be otherwise 
disgraced. He did not remain long a prisoner, 
however, for King James soon released him, and 
gave him a yearly pension of ^1200 with which 
he retired to his home and there devoted the re- 
maining five years of his life to study and writing. 

Bacon's Writings. — When a young man Bacon 
wrote to his uncle, " I have taken all knowledge to 
be my province." Acting on that resolution he 
became very learned, and wishing to do some 
good with his knowledge, he wrote books to show 
how to obtain the best results in science. Like 
modern scientists he believed in studying Nature, 
instead of sitting in a study and imagining ridicu- 
lous things as men of the Middle Ages had done. 
In attempting to prove his theory that flesh can be 
preserved by freezing, Bacon took the cold which 
resulted in his death. 

The books which illustrate Bacon's scientific prin- 
ciples are the Advancement of Learning and the 
Novum Organum. The latter was written in Latin ; 



FRANCIS BACON. 65 

for he had no faith in the stability of the English 
tongue, but thought that Latin would always be 
the language of scholars, and therefore the proper 
one in which to write a book he wished to have live. 

These scientific books are for the scholar and the 
special student, but one book of Bacon's is read 
by every one ; that is a volume of Essays. This 
contains Bacon's reflections on a great variety of 
subjects. Love, Friendship, Death, Riches, Am- 
bition, Studies — all receive attention, and show 
Bacon a man of broad views and deep thought. 
These essays are the first in the English language. 
The word essay is used in its original meaning 
of weighing or testing, and therefore we find these 
writings are not long, elaborate treatises, but are 
more like a collection of the ideas which a person 
jots down when first thinking of writing on a sub- 
ject. Bacon defined them " as grains of salt that 
will rather give you an appetite than offend you 
with satiety." They are often so condensed in 
expression that many sentences make good prov- 
erbs. In respect to directness and clearness, their 
style is far in advance of any other prose written 
in this period, and fully warrants assigning Bacon 
a high place among the Elizabethans. 

Bacon also wrote a good History of the Reign 
of Henry VII. and a romance, the New Atlantis, 
in which he gives a picture of an ideal common- 
wealth. 

'William Shakespeare. — The greatest name in all 
English literature, the greatest name, in fact, in 

F 



66 THE AGE OF ELIZABETH. 

the history of the literature of the world, is William 
Shakespeare. 

Little is known in regard to his life. He was 
born at Stratford, on the Avon, in 1564. His 
father was a merchant, in comfortable circum- 
stances at one time. Shakespeare went to the 
village grammar school, but further than that we 
have no knowledge of his course of study. When 
he was eighteen he married Anne Hathaway, a 
woman seven years his senior, with whom he 
seems to have lived unhappily. 

Soon after his marriage Shakespeare went to 
London to seek his fortune. It is supposed that 
at first he held horses at the doors of London 
theatres; that he sometimes was called upon to 
act on the stage, and that in this way he became 
interested in the drama. He next touched up old 
plays, and after some practice of this kind finally 
wrote those marvellous dramas which show so vast 
a knowledge of human nature, of the strength and 
weakness of the human heart, that men have never 
ceased to ask, How could he do it? 

After some years in London, Shakespeare be- 
came stockholder in the Globe Theatre, grew rich, 
and went back to Stratford. There he bought a 
fine house and estate, and lived the last years of 
his life as a country gentleman. He died in 1616, 
and was buried in the church at Stratford. The 
following epitaph upon his tombstone has deterred 
any one from removing his ashes to a more im- 
posing resting-place : ■ — 




WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 
1564-1616 



SHAKESPEARE. 67 

" Good frend, for Jesus sake forbeare 
to digg the dust encloased heare ; 
Bleste be ye man yt spares thes stones, 
and curst be he yt moves my bones." 

Shakespeare's Work. — Shakespeare's literary ca- 
reer is commonly divided into four periods. 

In the first period he wrote his dramas of love : 
Loves Labors Lost, the Comedy of Errors, Mid- 
summer-Night's Dream, Two Gentlemen of Verona, 
Romeo and Jnliet, and All's Well that Ends Well; 
also his non-dramatic love poems, Venus and 
Adonis and the Rape of Lucrece ; and began his 
series of great historical plays. Richard II. and 
King John belong to this period. 

In the second period the plays lose many of the 
faults of those of the first period, and show more 
finished dramatic art. His greatest historical plays 
and his best comedies were written now. To this 
period belong the Merchant of Venice, Henry IV, 
Much Ado About Nothing, and As You Like It. 

In the third period the tragedies were written. 
It is thought that the misfortunes which befell some 
of his friends turned Shakespeare's mind to the 
graver things of life, and led him to work out in 
his dramas the dreadful consequences of evil deeds. 
In this time he wrote Julius Ccesar, Hamlet, Mac- 
bctJi, and Lear. 

The fourth period is the time of calm and seren- 
ity. The plays now dwell upon domestic peace 
and forgiveness. In this period Winter s Tale, 
Cymbeline, and the Tempest were written. 



68 THE AGE OF ELIZABETH. 

The Sonnets. — Besides the poems and dramas 
already mentioned, Shakespeare wrote one hundred 
and fifty-four exquisite sonnets, which, like most of 
the sonnets of the period, have love for their chief 
subject. He did not follow the prescribed Italian 
form in regard to the arrangement of his rimes, but 
showed his independence by making a sonnet which 
from him is called Shakespearian. The following 
illustrates Shakespeare's observation of nature as 
well as the form of his sonnet : — 

" Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? 
Thou art more lovely and more temperate : 
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May 
And summer's lease hath all too short a date : 
Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines 
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd ; 
And every fair from fair sometime declines, 
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed ; 
But thy eternal summer shall not fade 
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st ; 
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade 
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st. 

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, 
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee." 

The Condition of the Drama. — When Shakespeare 
was a young man, all the various forms of the 
drama that have been mentioned — the Miracle, 
Mystery, Morality plays, and the Interludes — were 
more or less popular. The study of Greek and 
Latin, however, had interested scholars in the 
classic drama, and from a study of classic models 



THE EARLY DRAMA. 69 

the modern drama rose. But the rules on which 
this drama was formed did not suit English taste, 
and in England it was not successful. The classic 
drama insisted upon the three unities of time, place, 
and action. Nothing could be represented on the 
stage whose performance in real life would require 
more than twenty-four hours. Everything had to 
happen in one place ; development of character 
could not be shown, and variety of scenes, as on 
the modern stage, was impossible. 

The First Modern Plays. — About I 55 I we have 
the first play of what is known as the modern 
drama. This is a comedy, RalpJi Roister Doister, 
by Nicholas Udall, master of Eton. He wrote this 
play for the boys in his school to act at Christmas- 
time. It follows Latin models, as does also the 
first tragedy, Gorboduc, which was acted in 1561 
at the Christmas festivities of the Inner Temple. 
Gorboduc was followed by the plays of John Lyly, 
author of Euphues, and by the work of the six 
Scholar Playwrights, Greene, Peele, Lodge, Nash, 
Kyd, and Marlowe. These men were all living dur- 
ing Shakespeare's time. They are called the Scholar 
Playwrights because they were all university men. 
Their college training, however, could not match 
the natural genius of Shakespeare, and though 
they ransacked Latin, French, Italian, and Span- 
ish comedies in order to find material for their 
dramas, their plays are often without art, a mere 
jumble of scenes and characters. 

Morley says of Shakespeare: "When he had 



70 THE AGE OF ELIZABETH. 

done his 'prentice work, and become master of his 
craft, every play became a true poem, and had the 
spiritual unity that is in every great work of art. 
Each play had its own theme in some essential 
truth of life." It is the working out of this theme, 
steadily, clearly, with all the incidents helping to 
develop the plot, that makes Shakespeare greater 
than his contemporaries in the construction of a 
play. 

Christopher Marlowe. — Of the Scholar Play- 
wrights, Christopher Marlowe was the greatest; 
his work marks the transition from that of the 
wild, chaotic writers of his time to that of Shake- 
speare. Marlowe's dramas contain the logical 
development of one idea, well-drawn characters, 
and better verse form than the dramas of his con- 
temporaries. He first used successfully the newly 
adopted blank verse. Before this the plays of the 
period had been written mainly in prose and rime. 
Marlowe's " mighty line," as Ben Jonson called it, 
was adopted by Shakespeare in his dramas, and 
had Marlowe lived to Shakespeare's age, there is 
reason to think that Shakespeare would have had 
a rival worthy of his genius. Marlowe was born 
in the same year as Shakespeare, but being of a 
wild, impetuous nature, he plunged into all the 
excesses of the society into which he was thrown, 
and, at the age of twenty-nine, died from wounds 
received in a tavern brawl. Marlowe's greatest 
plays are Tamburlaine, Dr. Fanstus, the Jew of 
Malta, and Edward II. 



BEN JONSON. 71 

Conclusion. — When Shakespeare, then, began to 
write, many of the plays followed classic models; 
blank verse was first used successfully, but most 
of the plays were poorly constructed. 

Shakespeare threw aside the classic unities. 
He was greater than his contemporaries and those 
who have followed him (1) in the construction of 
a play, (2) in the skill with which he used blank 
verse, (3) in the drawing of characters, (4) in 
imagination, (5) in poetic expression, (6) and in his 
interpretation of life. He saw life as a whole, all 
its depths and shadows, all its comedy and mirth; 
and seeing it as such, he was able to paint a true 
picture. In his depth and breadth of knowledge 
of life, he differs from Ben Jonson, who was his 
friend, and who continued the great dramatic work 
of the period after Shakespeare's death. 

Ben Jonson is the last great writer of the Eliza- 
bethan period. He was born in 1574. He was 
the son of a poor clergyman, who died when Jon- 
son was a child. His mother married for her 
second husband a master bricklayer, and it is said 
that Jonson, because of lack of funds to continue 
his university course, followed for a time his step- 
father's trade. Afterward he enlisted as a soldier 
and went to the Continent. On his return to Lon- 
don he turned to the stage and became an actor, 
but he never rose to eminence. 

He began his dramatic career as Shakespeare 
began his, by altering and recasting old plays. In 
1596, before he was twenty-two, he made himself 



72 THE AGE OF ELIZABETH. 

famous by writing the comedy Every Man in his 
Humor, Two years later this play was brought 
out at the Blackfriars Theatre, and Shakespeare 
himself acted in it as Elder Knowell. Jonson 
then wrote Every Man out of his Humor and 
Cynthia's Revels. His other famous plays are 
Volpone (1605), the Silent Woman (1609), an d 
the Alchemist (16 10). 

Turning to lighter work, Jonson became very 
successful as a writer of Masques, which were 
dramatic representations much in favor at the 
houses of noblemen. They were so called because 
the actors originally wore masks. Singing, danc- 
ing, and gorgeous dress and scenery were united 
in this kind of entertainment by a framework of 
fable or allegorical story. They called for great 
invention on the part of the one who arranged 
them, and for a wide knowledge of mythological 
and other stories. They were written for some 
especial occasion, as a marriage, or the celebration 
of some political event, and gained in interest by 
containing direct reference to the occasion and the 
people present. The Masque of Queens and the 
Gipsies Metamorphosed r are two of Jonson's most 
popular productions. The latter pleased King 
James so much, that he raised the pension which 
the poet was then receiving. 

As a writer of lyrics and songs, too, Jonson 
showed marked ability. His To Celia, beginning, — 

" Drink to me only with thine eyes," 
is perhaps the best known. 



THE DRAMA. 73 

Jonson died in 1637, an ^ was buried in West- 
minster Abbey. On the pavement stone which 
marks his grave is the simple inscription, " O Rare 
Ben Jonson ! " 

Jonson and Shakespeare were always friendly. 
They were both members of the celebrated Mer- 
maid Club which met at the Mermaid Tavern. 
Jonson has given us his feeling for Shakespeare 
in a prose work called Discoveries, in which he 
says, " I loved the man and do honor his memory 
on this side idolatry as much as any." In some 
celebrated Lines he says of Shakespeare: — 

" I confess thy writings to be such 
As neither Man nor Muse can praise too much." 

a Soul of the age ! 
The applause! delight! the wonder of our stage." 

" Thou art a monument without a tomb 
And art alive still while thy book doth live 
And we have wits to read and praise to give/' 

The Decline of the Drama. — Jonson as a drama- 
tist differed from Shakespeare in that he followed 
the classic unities and represented the fads and 
follies of the time — the humors of his own age — 
rather than the unchangeable feelings of the hu- 
man heart. He portrays us parts of life, not life 
as a whole as does Shakespeare. With him begins 
the decline of the drama. 

Two popular dramatists of this time, whose 
work shows still further falling away from the 
height reached by Shakespeare, are Beaumont and 



74 THE AGE OF ELIZABETH. 

Fletcher. They usually worked together in writ- 
ing a play. Their plays show not only weak 
character-drawing and sensational situations, but 
obscene language and impure thoughts, though 
occasionally fine poetic lines occur. The corrupt 
morals of a later age, however, greatly preferred 
Beaumont and Fletcher to Shakespeare, and thus 
public sentiment helped still further the decline. 

Where the Plays were Given. — We have seen 
that the Miracle and the Morality plays were given 
first in the church, then in the churchyard, and later 
on movable stages in open places in the towns. 

When the modern drama began, the plays were 
given at the universities, in the halls of the no- 
bility, and in the courtyards of the inns. The 
nobles kept hired players to act for them, and at 
the court there was a Master of Revels whose 
business was to inspect plays and decide which 
ones were worthy. The London Corporation ob- 
jected to the giving of plays, and opposed them as 
much as possible; but in 1574 the Earl of Leices- 
ter, who was in high favor with Queen Elizabeth, 
secured for his servants the right to act plays in 
any town in England. In 1576 Leicester's ser- 
vants built a theatre on land which had once be- 
longed to the monastery of the Blackfriars. This 
was called " Blackfriars Theatre/' The same 
year two other theatres were built outside of 
London walls. The Globe Theatre was built for 
Shakespeare, outside of London in Southwark, 
in 1599. 



THE THEATRES. 75 

These theatres had no roof except above the 
stage. There was no scenery, and a blanket was 
used for a curtain. A sign put up in a convenient 
place on the stage told the audience that the action 
was taking place on a heath in Scotland, or in the 
interior of a castle, as the case might be. As the 
facilities for lighting were poor, and as travelling 
after dark was dangerous, the play began at three 
o'clock in the afternoon. People going to the 
London theatres took a boat on the Thames and 
were rowed to their destinations. Arriving, they 
ranged themselves about the stage in the yard, or 
pit, of the theatre, and stood during the perform- 
ance. The nobles and ladies, however, sat in 
boxes, or upon the stage itself. All the parts in 
the play were taken by men or boys, and it was 
not uncommon for an actor who played poorly to 
be driven from the stage. 

READING FOR CHAPTER V. 

See From Chaucer to Arnold for good selections of the 
literature of this period. Also Ward's English Poets, Vol. I. 

Palgrave's Golden Treasury contains many of the best 
short poems of this and later periods. This is perhaps the 
best single volume for the student of English poetry to own. 

Spenser. — Students should read Canto I. in the first book 
of the Faerie Queene. Kitchin's edition of Book I. (Clarendon 
Press) will be found highly satisfactory. 

Shakespeare. — Read Macbeth, Julius Casar, and the 
Merchant of Venice. 

Marlowe. — Read Dr. Faustus, 

Ben Jonson. — Read the Alchemist, or Every Man in 
his Humor. 



7 6 



THE AGE OF ELIZABETH. 



The Best Elizabethan Plays, edited by William R. Thayer 
(Ginn & Co.), gives one a good idea of the best dramatic 
work of five Elizabethan poets (Marlowe, Jonson, Fletcher, 
Beaumont, and Webster) who rank next to Shakespeare. 



WRITERS OF THE AGE OF ELIZABETH. 



Poetry. 

i. Tottel's Miscellany of Uncer- 
tain Authors, 1557. 

2. Thomas Sackville, 1527-1608 : 

Mirror for Magistrates, 1563. 

3. George Gascoigne, 1536-1577 : 

Steel Glass, 1576. 

4. Edmund Spenser, 1552-1599: 

Shepherd's Calendar, 1579 ; 
The Faerie Queene, 1590, 
Books IV.-VI., 1596; Amo- 
retti, 1595 ; Epithalamion, 
1595 ; Colin Clout's Come 
Ho??ie, 1595 ; Prothalamion, 
1596. 

5. William Warner, 1558-1606: 

Albion's Eiigland, 1586. 

6. Group of Sonneteers : Sir 

Philip Sidney, 1554-1586 ; 
Thomas Watson, 1557-1593 ; 
Thomas Lodge, 1555-1625 ; 
Michael Drayton, 1563-1631; 
Henry Constable, 1562-1613 ; 
Samuel Daniel, 1562-1619. 

7. Christopher Marlowe, 1564- 

1593 : Hero and Leander 
(completed by' Chapman, 
1598). 

8. William Shakespeare, 1564- 

1616 : Venus and Adonis. 
1593; Lucrece 1594; Son- 
nets, 1598-1609. 

9. Sir Walter Raleigh, 1552- 

16 1 8 : The Lie. 



10. Imitators of Spenser : — 

a. Giles Fletcher, 1588- 
1623 : Christ 's Victor ie 
and Triumph, 1610. 

b. Phineas Fletcher, 1582- 
1650 : Purple Island, 

1633. 

11. Metaphysical Poets : — 

a. John Davies, 1570-1626. 

b. John Donne, 1573-163 1. 

Prose. 

1. Raphael Holinshed (died 

1580) : Chronicles, 1677. 

2. Richard Hakluyt, 1553-1616 

Voyages, 1582-1600. 

3. Sir Philip Sidney, 1554-1586 

Defence of Poesie, 1583. 

4. Richard Hooker, 1553-1600 

The Ecclesiastical Polity, 
1586. 

5. Sir Walter Raleigh, 1552-1618 : 

History of the World, 1606- 
1614. 

6. Robert Burton, 1576-1639 : 

The Anatomy of Melancholy, 
1621. 

Romance. 

1. John Lyly, 1554-1606: Eu- 

phues, 1580. 

2. Sir Philip Sidney, 1554-1586: 

Arcadia, 1580. 

3. Robert Greene, 1560-1592: 

Menaphon, 1587. 

4. Thomas Lodge, 1558-1625: 

Rosalynde, 1590. 



SUMMARY. 



77 



Translations. 

i. Froissart's Chronicles, 1523, by 
John Berners. 

2. Plutarch's Lives, 1579, by Sir 

Thomas North. 

3. Italian Tales, 1576, by George 

Turberville. 

4. Ariosto's Orla?ido Furioso, 

1591, by Sir J. Harrington. 

5. Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered, 

1600, by Edward Fairfax. 

6. Homer's Iliad, 1598 ; Homer's 

Odyssey, 1610, by George 
Chapman. 

7. King James's Bible, 161 1. 

Drama. 

1. Nicholas Udall : Ralph Roister 

Bolster. 

2. Bishop John Still : Gammer 

Gur ton's Needle. 

3. Sackville and Norton : Gorbo- 

duc, 1561. 

4. John Lyly, 1554- 1600 : Alex- 

ander and Campaspe, 1584. 

5. The Six Scholar Playwrights : — 

a. Robert Greene, 1560- 
1592: Friar Baco?i and 
Friar Bu?igay, 1588. 

b. George Peele, 1558- 
1598 : King David and 
Fair Bethsabe. 



c. Thomas Lodge ? -1625 : 
The Wounds of Civil 
War, 1594. 

d. Thomas Nash, 1565- 
1602 : Will Summer s 
Testament. 

e. Thomas Kyd : The Span- 
ish Tragedy, 1592. 

f. Christopher Marlowe, 
1564-1593 : Tamburlaine, 
1587; Dr. Faustus, 1604; 
The Jew of Malta, 
1588; Edward II, 1592. 

6. William Shakespeare, 1564- 

1616 : Thirty-seven plays. 

7. Ben Jonson, 1573-1637 : 

Every Man in his Humor, 
1596; Volpone, 1605; The 
Alchemist, 1610; Masques. 

Decline of the Drama. 

1. Beaumont and Fletcher: Phi- 

laster, The Maid's Tragedy. 

2. George Chapman, 1559-1634. 

3. John Webster: The Duchess 

of Malfi; The White Devil. 

4. John Ford, 1586- ? 

5. Philip Massinger, 1584-1639. 

6. Thomas Dekker, 1569-? 

7. John Marston, ?-i634. 

8. Thomas Middleton, 1570-1634. 

9. James Shirley, 1594-1666. 



CHAPTER VI. 
THE PURITAN AGE. 

SOVEREIGNS OF THE PERIOD. 

Charles I. . . . 1625-1649. Cromwell, Protector . . . 1653-1659. 

The Commonwealth . . . 1649-1660. 

We call this the Puritan Age, because it is 
dominated by Puritan principles. In the days of 
Elizabeth the Puritan party was strong, and that 
strength kept increasing until it finally controlled 
everything. 

James I., who succeeded Elizabeth, and his son 
Charles I. believed that the power of the king was 
God-given, and should not be controlled by the 
people. Charles refused to call Parliament to- 
gether, raised money without the consent of the 
people, and did many illegal acts. In 1640, how- 
ever, he was forced to call a Parliament. Compli- 
cations arose, and civil war soon broke out between 
him and the people, who were led in military mat- 
ters by Oliver Cromwell, a Puritan. The fortune 
of war went against Charles. He was taken pris- 
oner, was called, to account for his misdeeds, was 
found guilty, and was beheaded in 1649. The 
form of government was then changed to a com- 
monwealth, or republic, and Cromwell became Pro- 
tector in 1653. He continued in power until his 
death in 1659, and then, in 1660, the people called 

78 



THE PURITAN AGE. 79 

back to England the son of Charles I. who had 
been in exile on the Continent. His coming re- 
stored the old kingly line of rulers, and is spoken 
of in history as the Restoration. 

The Puritans believed in simplicity of life. They 
frowned upon amusements, and thought the ten- 
dencies of the New Learning were irreligious. 
They disapproved of the sonnets and the love poe- 
try written in the previous period, and still fashiona- 
ble with the Cavaliers, as the followers of the King 
were called. In 1642 the theatres were closed. 
The Bible became now the one book of the people. 
A new version had been printed in 161 1, during 
the reign of James I., — the same version which 
we use to-day, — and the fact that it was read and 
discussed much, helped to fix firmly the English 
in which it was written. English expression was 
still further helped at this time by the great num- 
ber of religious and political pamphlets which were 
published. Cromwell's armies carried printing- 
presses with them, and waged a war with words, 
as well as with swords, defending the positions 
which they had taken. 

There is little literary merit in these pamphlets, 
and the Puritan influence in general tended to sup- 
press literary art, yet this hard, stern sect produced 
a great poet, John Milton, and a great writer of 
allegories, John Bunyan. The lives of these two 
men extend past the time of Puritan political 
influence, but their writings are the flower of the 
Puritan spirit. 



80 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 



THE LITERATURE. 



The Poetry. — The Elizabethan Age produced 
much excellent poetry, but it was not the result of 
following rules of art; it came because of strong 
feeling and natural ability on the part of the 
writers. These two qualities will of themselves 
produce artistic work ; but even a writer of unusual 
power sometimes has moments when his genius 
fails, and thus in the midst of much excellence in 
the Elizabethan poets we often find poor taste 
shown in expression, and great exaggeration of 
feeling and sentiment, until both are ridiculous. 
Rules of art would have helped to correct this, but 
such rules had not yet been developed. 

In this Puritan Age, natural ability is more com- 
monplace than in the Elizabethan, and ordinary 
writers, having nothing to guide them but their 
own taste, have not the good sense to imitate the 
virtues of their predecessors, but copy their vices 
instead. 

The poetry of this period thus becomes fantas- 
tic in form and expression. New metres are used ; 
new arrangements of poetic lines are tried ; queer 
conceits, or turns of thought, we find everywhere, 
and a misuse of. figures. 

As this fantastic expression is often the dress of a 
thought, which of itself is grotesque or vague, much 
of the poetry of this period is not only eccentric, 
but it is also obscure. It is often hard to find out 
what the poets mean, and they seem not to care 



THE PURITAN AGE. 



if they are not understood. The one who set 
the fashion for this fantastic, obscure poetry was 
Dr. John Donne, who died in 163 1. His poems 
were published after his death, and some of them 
read like riddles. The following lines will illus- 
trate his style. They are addressed To the Lady 
Bedford : — 

< ; You that are she and you, that's double she. 
In her dead face half of yourself shall see : 
She was the other part : for so they do 
Which build them friendships, become one of two ; 
So two, that but themselves no third can fit. 
Which were to be so. when they were not yet 
Twins, though their birth Cuzco and Moscow take, 
As divers stars one constellation make, 
Paired like two eyes, have equal motion, so 
Both but one means to see, one way to go." 

The Miscellaneous Poets may be grouped under 
two heads : Religious Poets and Cavalier Poets. 
In their writings are found occasional poems of 
great merit. 



I. Religious Poets : — 
George Sandys 
George Herbert 
Richard Crashaw . 
Henry Vaughan 

II. Cavalier Poets : — 

William Drummond 
Thomas Carew 
Robert Her rick 
Sir John Suckling . 
Richard Lovelace . 



1577-1643 
1593-1633 
1615-1650 
1621-1695 

1585-1649 
1589-1639 
1 594-1 674 
1 608- 1 642 
1618-1658 



Of the religious poets George Herbert is the 



82 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

most famous. His poems show much oddity in 
the use of figures, but breathed through them is 
the saintliness of the man's own life. 

Sentiments like the following are constantly 
occurring : — 

" Lord, I will mean and speak thy praise, 

Thy praise alone. 
My busy heart shall spin it all my days ; 

And when it stops for want of store, 
Then will I wring it with a sigh or groan 

That Thou may'st yet have more.' 1 

Of the reckless, careless cavaliers, Robert 
Herrick is the best. Some of his verse shows 
exquisite taste, and many of his poems are very 
beautiful. They are short — some of them not 
more than two lines — and on subjects of trifling 
importance : Cupid, Her Voice, A Perfumed Lady, 
Her Blush, A Kisse, all receive attention. A col- 
lection called Noble Numbers shows a more serious 
mood. The lines addressed to Faire Daffadills, 
from which the following are quoted, have long 
been favorites for their delicacy of sentiment and 
grace of expression : — 

" Faire Daffadills, we weep to see 
You haste away so soone : 
As yet the early-rising sun 
Has not attain'd his noone. 

Stay, stay. 
Until the hasting day 

Has run 
But to the even song ; 
And, having prayM together, we 
Will goe with you along." 



JOHN MILTON. 83 

John Milton, who as a poet ranks next to Shake- 
speare, has few of the oddities of the fantastic 
school. Some critics call him the last of the 
Elizabethans, because his writings show many of 
the qualities which they possessed. 

Milton's life extends from 1608 to 1674. He 
was born in London, attended several private 
schools, and at the age of sixteen entered Christ's 
College, Cambridge. While at college he showed 
marked ability as a poet, by composing On the 
Death of a Fair Infant, and the Hymn on the 
Nativity. 

Milton's father, who was a Puritan in comfortable 
circumstances, owned a country seat at Horton, 
not far from London. To this country seat young 
Milton went after leaving college, and there he 
spent nearly six years reading Greek and Latin 
authors, leading a quiet, peaceful life, experiment- 
ing with poetry. Even thus early he had resolved 
to write at some time a grand poem, but he had 
not decided what his subject should be. 

The Poems of Milton's Youth. — During the time 
which he spent at Horton, Milton wrote the poems 
U Allegro, II Penseroso, Covins, and lyeidas. 

The first two, the titles of which mean "the 
cheerful man" and "the thoughtful man," show 
Milton's observation and appreciation of nature, 
as well as his attitude toward life. In U Allegro 
he tells the pleasures which would delight him 
if his mood were mirthful, and in // Penseroso 
those that would please him if his mood were 



84 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

melancholy. The verse of these poems is won- 
derfully musical, tripping or gliding in perfect 
accord with the thought. 

Comus is a masque, which was presented at 
Ludlow Castle. It shows Milton to be a true poet, 
grave and grand, able to write good blank verse 
and good lyrics. In fact, the poetry in this masque 
is finer than in any other masque in the language. 
Here Milton gives voice to his Puritan ideas, and 
causes moral virtue to triumph over evil. 

In Lycidas Milton mourns for a learned friend 
who was drowned at sea. He imitates in some 
measure the old Greek elegies, especially the Sor- 
row of Daphnis, by Theocritus. He imitates, but 
he also improves on the lines of the old Greek, 
and produces such exquisite poetry that Mark 
Pattison, an eminent critic, says, " This piece, un- 
matched in the whole range of English poetry, 
and never again equalled by Milton himself, leaves 
all criticism behind.' ' 

Trip on the Continent. — In 1638 Milton set out 
for a trip on the Continent. He visited Paris, and 
then went on to Italy, spending many delightful 
hours with men of learning. The news of political 
troubles in England, however, reached his ear, and 
in 1639 he returned home to aid his countrymen in 
the struggle against the King. 

Milton's Prose Period. — After Charles I. was be- 
headed, Milton served the state as Latin Secre- 
tary, and continued in that capacity until Charles 
II.'s return in 1660. With the exception of a few 




JOHN MILTON 
1608-1(574 



PARADISE LOST. 85 

sonnets, during this period Milton wrote prose. 
He defended the English people in the step which 
they had taken in resisting the tyranny of Charles 
I. ; he wrote on education, and in favor of doing 
away with the license required for printing books. 
This latter work, called Areopagitica, is a classic 
among the literature which speaks for the freedom 
of the press. 

Last Years. — From 1660 until his death, Milton 
lived quietly in London, and turned his attention 
again to poetry. From overuse of his eyes, in 
1652 he had become totally blind, and now was 
obliged to ask the assistance of his daughters in 
writing his thoughts. The writing of the grand 
poem which he had had in mind in his youth was 
the task which he now attempted. In the years 
that had passed many stories had suggested them- 
selves for poetic treatment, — among others that of 
King Arthur, — but this he threw aside with the 
other subjects which had haunted his mind, and 
taking for his theme "man's first disobedience," 
he w 7 rote the epic, Paradise Lost. This was pub- 
lished in 1667, and was followed in 1671 by Para- 
dise Regained. In the same year appeared the 
drama of Samson Agonist es, and then Milton's 
best literary work was done. 

Paradise Lost is Milton's greatest work. It tells 
of the revolt of the angels under Satan, of their 
expulsion from Heaven, and of their plans for 
revenge by coming to earth and tempting man 
to disobey God. 



86 JOHN MILTON. 

In telling this story, strong imagination is needed 
to picture the scenes in Heaven and Hell and else- 
where. A lofty conception of the characters is 
also necessary, for God and the angels, as well as 
Satan and his followers, have parts to play. Ex- 
alted sentiments, too, must be expressed by char- 
acters raised so high above mortals ; and dignified, 
stately expression must voice their sentiments. 

That Paradise Lost is grand in imagination and 
poetic expression, no one will deny. It is rich, 
too, in allusion to stories of old deeds ; and though 
it is marred by narrow ideas concerning the posi- 
tion of woman, by the intrusion of Puritan theology, 
and by a conception of God which is not spiritual, 
yet it fitly ranks first among the epics in the Eng- 
lish language. 

Satan is the best-drawn character. In the first 
part of the poem Milton has made him majestic in 
his ruin, a creature of so much intellect and daring 
and fortitude that we unconsciously give him our 
sympathy, though not our approval. He stands 
among his followers like a tower — 
" In shape and gesture proudly eminent." 

"... his face 
Deep scars of thunder had entrenched, and care 
Sat on his faded cheek, but under brows 
Of dauntless courage, and considerate pride." 

Later, after the successful temptation of man, he 
loses dignity, and with his followers is condemned 
for certain periods of time to take the shape of the 
serpent in whose form he tempted Eve — 



PARADISE LOST. 87 

u punished in the shape he sinned, 
According to his doom." 

Milton as a Writer. — Milton is the most scholarly 
of all the English poets. He was a Puritan of the 
more liberal type, and studied carefully the Greek 
and Latin literature which many of his fanatic 
friends called impious. 

His writings are clear, pure, and sublime in 
thought and expression. He believed that in 
order to write nobly a person should live nobly, 
and he was in character a high-minded gentleman. 
Wordsworth says of Milton : — 

" Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart : 
Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea : 
Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free.'' 

Tennyson has called him the " God-gifted organ- 
voice of England," for in his poetry, particularly 
in Paradise Lost, we have the flowing cadences, 
the grand volume of sound, the " liquid sweetness 
long drawn out," which no musical instrument 
except the organ fitly gives. 

In Paradise Lost Milton's blank verse is the 
perfection of that form of poetic art. The thought 
does not end with the line, but is continued through 
several verses, making a wave of melody or a nat- 
ural stanza. The following quotations illustrate 
this : — 

"Into this wild abyss the wary Fiend 
Stood on the brink of Hell and looked a while, 
Pondering his voyage : " 



88 THE PURITAN AGE. 

"Far off from these, a slow and silent stream, 
Lethe, the river of oblivion, rolls 
Her watVy labyrinth, whereof who drinks 
Forthwith his former state and being forgets — 
Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain." 

The Prose. — The prose of the period was abun- 
dant. Besides the political pamphlets which we 
have mentioned, religious tracts flooded the land. 
An increased interest in science, caused by the 
writings of Bacon> led to the publication of scien- 
tific works. Most of the prose was " stately, cum- 
brous, brocaded," in style. Long sentences, where 
clause was added to clause in a most involved 
manner, were still used. Many of Milton's sen- 
tences in the Areopagitica contain from one hun- 
dred to three hundred words. 

In this period were published three religious 
books which remained popular for two hundred 
years. These were Holy Living and Holy Dying, 
by Jeremy Taylor, who had been chaplain to 
Charles I., and the Saints' Everlasting Rest, by 
Richard Baxter, a Puritan preacher. 

Taylor's prose is sweet, eloquent, and poetic. 
He is sometimes called the prose Spenser of the 
seventeenth century. In speaking of the presence 
of God he says : 

" God is everywhere present by his power. He rolls the 
orbs of heaven with his hand ; he fixes the earth with his foot ; 
he guides all creatures with his eye, and refreshes them with 
his influence ; he makes the powers of hell to shake with his 
terrors, and binds the devils with his word, and throws them 
out with his command.' 1 



PROSE WRITERS. 89 

When he urges all people to be contented with 
what they have, he asks : — 

" Is that beast better that hath two or three mountains to 
graze on, than a little bee that feeds on dew or manna, and 
lives upon what falls every morning from the storehouse of 
heaven, clouds and providence? Can a man quench his thirst 
better out of a river than a full urn, or drink better from the 
fountain which is finely paved with marble, than when it sw r ells 
over the green turf ? " 

Another book of this period which is still pop- 
ular is Izaac Walton's Complete Angler. This is 
written in so graceful a style, and is so full of fine 
sentiments, that it cannot fail to please. Besides 
describing different kinds of fish and their habits, 
and giving rules for catching them, the book is full 
of Walton's delight in country scenery and the life 
of country people, who live in thatched cottages, 
sing melodious songs as they work, and put travel- 
lers to sleep in rooms sweet with lavender. His 
praise of the " calm, quiet, innocent recreation " of 
angling is genuine and enthusiastic. He says: — 

" No life, my honest scholar, no life so happy and so pleas- 
ant as the life of a well-governed angler ; for when the lawyer 
is swallowed up with business, — and the statesman is pre- 
venting, or contriving, plots — then we sit on cowslip-banks, 
hear the birds sing, and possess ourselves in as much quiet- 
ness as these silent silver streams, which we now see glide so 
quietly by us. 1 ' 

The Worthies of England, by Thomas Fuller, is 
also a notable book on account of its interesting 
information and humorous style. The sentences 
are clear, moderately short, and witty, with an 



90 THE PURITAN AGE. 

abundance of puns and a plentiful use of figures. 
Of William Butler, physician, Fuller says : — 

" Mr. John Crane, that expert apothecary, and his execu- 
tor is since buried by him ; and if some eminent surgeon was 
interred on his other side, I would say, that physic lay here in 
state, with its two pages attending it." 

In the sketch of Thomas Cavendish we are told 
that — 

"January 7th, they entered the mouth of the Magellan 
Straits; straits indeed, not only for the narrow passage, but 
many miseries of hunger and cold, which mariners must 
encounter therein. Here Mr. Cavendish named a town Port- 
famine ; and may never distressed seamen be necessitated to 
land there."" 

In speaking of Sir Edward Coke, Judge of Nor- 
folk, Fuller says : — 

"... the jewel of his mind was put into a fair case, a beauti- 
ful body, with a comely countenance ; a case which he did 
wipe and keep clean, delighting in good clothes well worn." 

Fuller was an Episcopal clergyman who went as 
chaplain with King Charles's army, and employed 
his leisure in gathering facts about worthy persons 
in whatever part of the country he happened to 
be. These facts he added to at different times, 
and in 1662 his book was published. 

John Bunyan (1628-1688) was the author of the 
most imaginative prose which this period produced. 
His talent lay in writing allegories — stories with 
a double meaning, where characters are named 
according to certain properties which they possess. 



JOHN BUNYAN. 9 1 

In Pilgrim s Progress, which is Bunyan's greatest 
book, abstract qualities, as wisdom and flattery, 
are made to act as persons. Pilgrim, the hero, 
stands for the true Christian, and the story is the 
record of Pilgrim's progress from the " City of 
Destruction" to the " Celestial City." 

Besides vivid imagination, Bunyan shows strong 
dramatic power. His language is earnest and 
simple, and was formed from reading the Bible, 
which he knew almost by heart. He wrote several 
other books besides Pilgrim's Progress ; namely, 
the Life and Death of Mr. B adman and the Holy 
War, but his fame rests on Pilgrim's Progress, 
which is the greatest prose allegory in the lan- 
guage. It was not published until 1678, but it is 
the outcome of Puritan principles and the Puritan 
life. 

Bunyan's writings, like those of Shakespeare, 
are the result of genius, for Bunyan had no liter- 
ary training, and hardly any education whatever. 
He was the son of a travelling tinker, and grew 
up amid most uncouth surroundings. When he 
was about twenty he became deeply concerned for 
the welfare of his soul, and when he thought his 
own salvation had been attained, he became a 
preacher to others. Many of his talks were given 
out of doors, and as he preached without the sanc- 
tion of the English Church, he was arrested and 
thrown into jail, where he was kept for nearly 
twelve years. While in jail he wrote the first 
part of Pilgrim s Progress. 



92 



THE PURITAN AGE. 



READING FOR CHAPTER VI. 

John Milton. — Paradise Lost, Books I. and II. ; L? Alle- 
gro, II Penseroso, Conms, and Lycidas ; the last ten pages of 
the Areopagitica. 

The Cavalier Poets in Ward's English Poets, Vol. II. 
Read Herrick's Corinna's Going a-Maying and The Litany. 

Izaac Walton. — The Complete Angler, Chapter I. 

John Bunyan. — Pilgrijji's Progress, as far as the entrance 
of Goodwill. 

LITERATURE OF THE PURITAN AGE. 



Prose, 
i. Sir Thomas Browne, 1605- 
1682: The Religio Medici, 
Inquiry into Vulgar Errors. 

2. John Milton, 1608-1674: Are- 

opagitica, 1644 ; Tractate on 
Education, 1644 ; Defense of 
the English People, 165 1. 

3. Thomas Fuller, 1608-1661 : 

The Holy War, 1640; The 
Worthies of England, 1662. 

4. Jeremy Taylor, 1613-1667: 

Holy Living, 1650 ; Holy Dy- 
ing, 165 1. 

5. Richard Baxter, 1615-1691 : 

Saints' Everlasting Rest, 
1650. 

6. Izaac Walton, 1593-1683 : The 

Complete Angler, 1653. 

7. Thomas Hobbes, 1588-1679: 

Leviatha?i, 1651. 

8. John Bunyan, 1628-1688 : Pil- 

grim's Progress, 1678-1684; 
Life and Death of Mr. Bad- 
man, The Holy War, 1682. 



Poetry. 

John Milton, 1608-1674 : L Al- 
legro, II Penseroso, 1632; 
Arcades, Comus, 1634; Lyci- 
das, 1637 ; 'Sonnets ; Paradise 
Lost, 1667; Paradise Regained, 
1671 ; Samson Agonistes, 1671. 

Religious Poets : — 

a. George Sandys, 1577-1643. 

b. George Herbert, 1593- 
1633: The Temple, The 
Church Porch. 

c. Richard Crashaw, 1615- 
1650. 

d. Henry Vaughan, 1621- 
1695. 

Cavalier Poets : — 

a. William Drummond,i585- 
1649 : Sonnets. 

b. Thomas Carew, 1589-1639. 

c. Robert Herrick, 1594- 
1674. 

d. Richard Lovelace, 1618- 
1658. 

e. Sir John Suckling, 1608- 
1642. 

f Abraham Cowley, 161 8- 

1667. 
g. Edmund Waller, 1605- 
1687. 
, Satirists : — 

a. George Wither, 1588-1667. 

b. Andrew Marvell, 1621- 
1678. 



CHAPTER VII. 

FROM THE RESTORATION TO THE DEATH 
OF POPE. 

SOVEREIGNS OF THE PERIOD. 

Charles II 1660-1685. Anne 1702-1714. 

James II 1685- 1689. George 1 1714-1727. 

William and Mary . i689-i702« George II 1727-1760. 

In 1660 Charles the Second and his followers, 
the Cavaliers, returned to England, and a merry, 
careless unprincipled set they were. Their natural 
appetite for worldly pleasures had been increased 
by the life which they had seen and lived on the 
Continent, and freedom of manners, loose morals, 
and gayety reigned. With their coming the rule 
of Puritanism ceased, and the fashion of the hour 
called for ridicule of everything Puritan, and for 
the doing of everything in an un-Puritan way. The 
key-note of reaction was struck in the poem called 
Hudibras, by Samuel Butler, published in 1662- 
1663. Here we have witty ridicule of the men 
who — 

u Quarrel with minc'd-pies, and disparage 
Their best and dearest friend, plum-porridge, ,, 

as the Puritans were said to do. The poem raised 
a great laugh, which we can hear echoing long and 
loud through the King's palace. For Charles was 
delighted with this lampoon on the Puritans, and 
kept a copy of Hudibras continually at hand. 

93 



94 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

On the death of Charles his brother succeeded 
him as James II. He continued in power until 
the English people were satisfied that he was try- 
ing to force Catholicism upon the nation, and was 
also deceiving them in regard to the birth of an 
heir. Then they compelled him to resign his 
throne, and called to his place his daughter Mary, 
who was married to William of Orange and lived 
in Holland. From this time party spirit ran high 
in England. Those who believed in James, and 
the true birth of the child that he called his son, 
were known as Tories, while the adherents of Will- 
iam and Mary, and the principles which they 
represented, were called Whigs. Party feeling 
pervaded not only politics, but literature. This 
became the great age of satire and spiteful writing, 
the age of wit and brilliancy. 

THE LITERATURE. 

The Cavaliers who had been with Charles on 
the Continent had become familiar with French 
literature, and after the Restoration French stand- 
ards of taste prevailed. Correctness and elegance 
in expression were now the aim of writers. They 
were aided in their efforts by imitation of the 
classic works of Greece and Rome, so much so that 
this period is sometimes called the Classic Age. 

The Poetry. — A reaction set in against the 
poetry of the Puritan Age, which followed the style 
of Donne. The poets now tried to express them- 
selves clearly and concisely. The popular verse 



AFTER THE RESTORATION. 95 

form was the riming couplet, and the great poets 
became so expert in its use that it was possible for 
them to make complete sense at the end of each 
two lines. So popular was this form, that when 
Milton brought out the second edition of Paradise 
Lost, he found it necessary to put at the beginning 
a note explaining why his poem did not rime. 
Dryden asked permission to make it rime, and 
actually rewrote Paradise Lost in the form of a 
rimed opera. He, with some others, also rewrote 
a number of Shakespeare's plays in the fashion- 
able form. 

Lack of True Poetic Spirit. — The poetry of this 
period is of the head and not of the heart. It is 
intellectual rather than emotional ; imitative rather 
than creative. It is prose written in rime. We 
can have no true poetry without feeling, imagina- 
tion, and rhythmical language. It is because of 
lack of feeling and imagination that the poetry of 
this age does not reach the highest standard. 

Lack of Reference to Nature is also characteristic. 
From reading the poetry one might almost think 
that the sun did not shine, nor the birds sing, nor 
the flowers grow during this whole period. Natu- 
ral objects are sometimes mentioned, it is true, but 
mostly in the conventional classic method which 
showed lack of personal observation. 

The Drama. — The reaction against Puritanism 
threw open the closed doors of the theatres. 
Scenery was now introduced, and women ap- 
peared on the stage for the first time as actors, 



g6 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

while, by way of variety, the ballet was given be- 
tween the acts. 

There was a call for new plays, and the writers 
who responded catered not only to the new liter- 
ary taste of the people, but also to the growing 
immorality of the English court. French romances 
were delved into for plots, and French literary 
taste, which said that plays should observe the 
three unities, was followed in some measure. Most 
of the plays were written in rime, but there were 
some in prose, and an occasional one in blank 
verse. 

In order to satisfy the corrupt morals of the 
time, the drama no longer showed the working 
out of high and noble principles, but reflected the 
shallow, indecent life of fashionable society ; and 
if we take out one or two plays, it is utterly value- 
less to us to-day except from an historical stand- 
point. In the comedies of the time we find the 
best picture of the age, and in William Congreve 
(1670-1729) the best comic dramatist. 

The Drama after 1700. — ■ The extreme indecency 
of the stage was confined to the first half of this 
period, for in 1698 Jeremy Collier, a Tory clergy- 
man, was moved to write a book condemning the 
immorality and profanity of the stage. This, 
with the influence of purer court life under 
Queen Mary, and the enforcement of the laws of 
the realm, tended to bring about a more healthy 
condition of the drama, and after 1700 several 
plays having a strictly moral purpose were brought 




JOHN DRYDEN 
1631-1700 



JOHN DRYDEN. 97 

out; but unfortunately they were dull, and there- 
fore were unpopular. Impurity continued, but in 
lesser degree. 

John Dryden. — The name of most importance 
at the beginning of this period is John Dryden 
(1631-1700). He was the son of a clergyman, 
had a university education, and made up his mind 
to earn his livelihood by writing. He forms the 
connecting link between the age of Puritan influ- 
ence and the age of the Restoration, for he wrote 
a poem on the death of Cromwell, and another 
welcoming Charles to England. He knew Milton, 
and sometimes visited him ; but he lacked Milton's 
firmness of character, and having made up his 
mind to support himself by his pen, he was care- 
ful to keep in favor with the ruling powers. 
When Charles II. was king, Dryden was an Epis- 
copalian ; when James II. took the throne, he be- 
came a Catholic, and he did his best in writing for 
each religious sect in turn. He devoted his whole 
life to literature, and became the acknowledged 
literary leader of the time. His was a master 
mind, and he easily led his contemporaries in 
verse form, satire, drama, and prose. His favorite 
resort was Will's Coffeehouse, in London, where 
he talked with the wits and satirists of his day. 

His Poetry. — Dryden's greatest poem is a satire 
called Absalom and Achitophel. Under these bib- 
lical names two prominent political leaders of 
the day, the Earl of Shaftesbury and the Duke 
of Monmouth, are satirized. Their friends and 



98 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

associates also come in for a share of ridicule. 
Some of the sharpest remarks are levelled at the 
writers who furthered the cause of Absalom and 
Achitophel. One dramatist and pamphleteer is 
pictured in these cutting lines : — 

" Spiteful he is not, though he wrote a satire, 
For still there goes some thinking to ill-nature : 
He needs no more than birds and beasts to think, 
All his occasions are to eat and drink. 
If he call rogue and rascal from a garret, 
He means you no more mischief than a parrot. 



" Let him be gallows free by my consent, 
And nothing suffer since he nothing meant ; 
Hanging supposes human soul and reason, 
This animal's below committing treason ; 



" The height of his ambition is, we know, 
But to be master of a puppetshow, 
On that one stage his works may yet appear, 
And a month's harvest keeps him all the year." 

For skilful delineation of character and situation, 
and for keenness of attack on individuals, this 
poem ranks first among English political satires. 
Two didactic poems, so called because they en- 
deavor to teach or explain, are the Religio Laid, 
or A Layman' s Faith, and the Hind and the Pan- 
ther. The former is a defence of the English 
Church; the latter is a vindication of Dryden's 
belief in Catholicism. 



JOHN DRYDEN. 99 

An ode called Alexander s Feast, written for a 
musical celebration on St. Cecilia's Day, is the most 
popular of Dryden's poems, and comes nearer to 
true poetry than anything else that he wrote. 

Lowell sums up Dryden's worth as a poet when 
he says he was " the greatest poet that ever was or 
could be made wholly out of prose." He delighted 
to argue in verse, and his poetry is mainly argu- 
mentative, didactic, and satiric. Dryden was Poet 
Laureate from 1670 to 1688. 

His Dramatic Work. — Dryden wrote many plays, 
including both tragedy and comedy. Among his 
best plays are the Indian Emperor, the Conquest 
of Granada, and Aurengzebe. These are heroic 
plays, that is, plays through which a great hero 
stalks. This form of play was very popular, as 
the liveliness and gayety of the court called for 
brilliant and startling effects on the stage. 

All in all, Dryden was the greatest dramatist of 
his time ; but gifted though he was, he allowed him- 
self to cater in his plays to the low moral taste of 
his day, and, in common with all sensible people 
who degrade their talents, before he died he be- 
came heartily ashamed of himself. He wrote for 
money, and did not aim at the highest. As a 
partner of the King's Dramatic Company he 
bound himself to produce three plays a year, but 
he was unable to write so many. 

Dryden's Prose. — Dryden is another " Father 
of English Prose " ; this time, however, it is as the 
father of modern English prose that we wish to 

LofC. 



IOO ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

distinguish him. He set the example of clear, 
direct expression which modern prose follows, and 
broke away from the scholarly, pedantic language 
of the age which preceded him. We find his prose 
mostly in the prefaces to his plays and poems. 
His Essay of Dramatic Poetry is the principal sin- 
gle work on which his fame as prose writer rests. 
This is a criticism of dramatic art, and is the begin- 
ning of English critical literature. 

Alexander Pope (1688-1 744). — After the death 
of Dryden, his poetic ideas were carried out by 
Alexander Pope, who now took the place which 
Dryden had occupied as ruler of literature. The 
riming couplet still remained the fashionable 
verse form, and in the hands of Pope it reached 
the highest degree of excellence which one could 
wish for it. Pope, too, like Dryden, wrote satire 
and didactic poetry. He did not, however, follow 
Dryden's custom of entertaining his friends at 
Will's Coffeehouse, for Pope was a cripple from 
his birth, and was often unable, from sheer weak- 
ness, to leave his room or even to rise from his 
bed. So his friends came to his house, and around 
his table sat the great men of his time. 

Pope was born in London, but in 171 7 he moved 
out to an estate which he had bought at Twicken- 
ham, on the Thames, and continued to live there 
until his death. In disposition he was irritable 
and spiteful, and as he was merciless upon any one 
who displeased him, it is small wonder that he was 
called "The Wasp of Twickenham." 



ALEXANDER POPE. IOI 

This sharp, spiteful temper gave him a natural 
talent for satire, and Pope, next to Dryden, ranks 
first in our language as satirist. His most power- 
ful satire is the Danciad, a poem in which every 
one who had criticised Pope adversely, or otherwise 
won his displeasure, was called a dunce. 

The Rape of the Lock (1712). — The poem of 
Pope's which is most generally pleasing is the 
Rape of the Lock. This relates a real occurrence 
in London society, and tells how, at a party, Lord 
Petre cut off a lock of Miss Arabella Fermor's 
hair. The lady was naturally indignant at Lord 
Petre, and so were her friends, and the publication 
of the poem, intended to smooth over the quarrel, 
only made matters worse. 

The style of the poem is mock heroic, that is, it 
imitates the true epic, or heroic poem, and treats 
the trifling occurrences of society life as if they 
were of as vast importance as the deeds of heroes. 
Like the grand epic, the poem begins by calling 
on a Muse for inspiration, and in further imitation 
it introduces " sylphs, fays, faeries, and elves," to 
play in lighter vein the parts which the classic 
writers allot to the gods. It certainly is a very 
clever piece of art, witty and sparkling. 

The Translation of Homer (1715-1725). — The 
work which made Pope rich was the translation 
of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. From these books 
he received a clear profit of more than forty thou- 
sand dollars, and was enabled to live in financial 
ease the rest of his life. 



102 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

The Iliad is the better translation of the two, 
though neither poem follows the original closely, 
for Pope was not a good Greek scholar. He gave 
the general meaning of the thought, however, in 
the graceful couplets for which he was famous, 
and made the lines smooth and easy to read. 

The Essay on Man (1732). — Pope's most am- 
bitious poem is the Essay on Man. Here he 
purposes, he says, to " vindicate the ways of God 
to man." He shows the condition of man in the 
world, his relation to God, and the proper end and 
purpose of his being. An essay is usually written 
in prose, but Pope says, " 1" chose verse, and even 
rime, for two reasons. The one will appear ob- 
vious: that principles, maxims, or precepts so 
written both strike the reader more strongly at 
first and are more easily retained by him after- 
ward. The other may seem odd, but is true : I 
found I could express them more shortly this way 
than in prose." And Pope certainly succeeded in 
expressing himself tersely. The poem, though 
not sound in its philosophy, abounds in short 
proverb-like expressions which have become fa- 
mous as quotations ; for example : — 

" Hope springs eternal in the human breast : 
Man neyer Is, but always To be blessed." 

" Know then thyself, presume not God to scan, 
The proper study of mankind is Man." 

" Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, 
As, to be hated, needs but to be seen ; 




■J- $p& 



THE PERIODICAL ESSAY. 103 

Yet seen too oft. familiar with her face, 
We first endure, then pity, then embrace." 

" Honor and shame from no condition rise : 
Act well your part, there all the honor lies. 1 ' 

Summary. — Pope is the leading poet of the 
classical school, that is, of the school which 
aimed at correct and polished expression, and 
followed in form the classics of Greece and Rome. 
He is brilliant and witty, and his example was 
needed in reforming expression, but nevertheless 
he is an artificial poet, for he does not deal with 
the deep emotions of human nature. 

The Periodical Essay. — In the Elizabethan period 
Bacon wrote a volume of essays, stiff and condensed 
in form. Now we have the periodical essay, or 
essay published in a paper, which differs greatly 
from the work of Bacon. 

The originator of the periodical essay was 
Richard Steele, a lively, generous, good-natured 
Irishman who had come to London to live. In 
1709 he started a paper called the Tatler, which 
was published three times a week, and under the 
pen name of Isaac Bickerstaff he wrote articles 
criticising the manners and morals, as well as the 
politics of the day. After a few numbers of the 
Tatler had been published, an old school friend of 
Steele's, Joseph Addison, began to contribute to 
the paper. 

In 171 1 the Tatler was discontinued, and a new 
paper called the Spectator was started. Steele and 
Addison were partners in the publication of this 



104 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

paper; they continued to publish it, at first, every- 
day, and later, three times a week, until December, 
1712. In this paper " anything in city, court, or 
country that shocks modesty or good manners " 
was criticised with the view of correcting the evil. 
This was the great age of clubs, — literary, po- 
litical, and social — and Addison and Steele told 
their readers through their paper that the Spec- 
tator was managed by a club composed of the 
representative orders of English society, and that 
through this club information was obtained on all 
live topics. One member of this imaginary club 
was Sir Roger de Coverley, a country gentleman 
of eccentric habits. He figures in many of the 
essays, and as they increase in number, his char- 
acter becomes so well developed that in the end 
he exists as one of the best creations in fiction. 
This series of character sketches is a good fore- 
runner of the novel of real life, which does not 
appear until the next literary period. 

The Style and Form. — The style of the Specta- 
tor essays is easy and graceful The greater part 
of them were written by Addison and Steele, and 
each man put into his writing something of his 
own personality, though it is hard for an inexperi- 
enced reader to detect the difference between the 
two. Addison gives careful attention to form ; 
Steele is often careless in construction, though he 
writes with more force than Addison. The lesson 
taught, or the moral brought out, is often illus- 
trated by an anecdote regarding Sir Roger, Will 



THE PERIODICAL ESSAY. 105 

Wimble, or some other imaginary character. The 
fondness of the age for classic authors is satisfied 
by quotations from Horace, Juvenal, and others, 
placed at the beginning of each article. A rare 
humor pervades the essays, gentle and refined, the 
kind that makes one smile, but not laugh aloud. 

Their Popularity was immediate. Newspapers 
had existed ever since the Puritan period, but they 
were small, unsatisfactory sheets. Daniel Defoe's 
paper, the Review, published from 1703 to 171 3, 
was well written and lively, but it dealt largely 
with politics and was not interesting to all classes. 
But the essays of the Tatler and the Spectator ap- 
pealed to all. The gentlemen read them as they 
sat at breakfast, and the ladies while at their tea- 
tables. To the ladies these short, easily understood 
papers were particularly acceptable, for unless they 
cared for heavy reading and for poetry, there was 
little in literature to attract them except transla- 
tions of tedious, long-drawn French romances. 

The popularity of these essays was not only im- 
mediate, but it continued all through the century. 
Numerous other papers were started in imitation 
of the Tatler and the Spectator, but none of them 
captured the public as did these two, and none of 
them are read to-day with the interest that centres 
around Sir Roger de Coverley. 

Richard Steele (1672-1729). — After leaving the 
university Steele entered the army, but soon 
wearied of its exacting service. He began his lit- 
erary career by the publication of the Christian 



106 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

Hero, a book which he wrote, not because he was 
of a religious nature, but because he wished to 
steady himself by religious thoughts. After Jeremy 
Collier's attack on the stage, Steele wrote several 
plays with a moral purpose, but they are dull and 
uninteresting to us to-day. His lasting literary 
work is his essays. In 171 5 Steele entered Par- 
liament and was knighted. In 1729 he died at his 
home in Wales. 

Joseph Addison (1672-1 719). — Addison was born 
in Wiltshire. He was reserved, scholarly, and just 
in character, and became so popular in many ways 
that it is said the English people would have been 
glad to make him king. When a young man he 
thought himself a poet and began literary life as 
such. He wrote two long poems which greatly 
pleased two political leaders, and through them 
he secured government patronage for ten years. 
He also wrote in verse the opera Rosamond, which 
was published in 1707, and the tragedy Cato, 
which was brought out in 171 3. He married the 
Countess of Warwick ; served as Secretary of 
State for a few months, and died in London at his 
mansion home called Holland House. His poetry, 
except that in the form of hymns, is not read now, 
and, like Steele's, his fame rests on his essays. 

Jonathan Swift. — In 1705 Addison dedicated a 
book, which he had written on his travels in Italy — 

"To Dr. Jonathan Swift, . 
The most agreeable companion, 

The truest friend, 
And the greatest genius of his age." 



ADDISON AND SWIFT. 107 

We have not space to go into the details of Swift's 
life, and try to prove, or disprove, the charms of 
his companionship or his fidelity to his friends ; 
but we shall try to show where his strength as a 
great genius lies. 

Swift was born in Dublin, of English parents, 
in 1667. After leaving Trinity College he became 
secretary to Sir William Temple ; afterward he 
entered the Church and became Dean of St. Pat- 
rick's, in Dublin, hence his common name — Dean 
Swift. He was a true friend of the Irish, and it is 
said that the poor in his parish were better cared 
for than in any other diocese in the land. While 
walking with a friend one day he said : " I shall be 
like that tree. I shall die at the top." His pre- 
diction came true, for a disease of the brain devel- 
oped early in his life, and several years before his 
death, in 1745, it caused hopeless insanity. 

His Writings. — Swift proved himself a genius 
by writing the most brilliant, witty, sarcastic, origi- 
nal prose of any period of English literature. His 
first prose work, A Tale of a Tub, is considered 
his best. It satirizes the Church of Rome and 
the Protestant dissenters. His Gulliver s Travels 
is the most popular of all his works. It relates 
the adventures of Captain Lemuel Gulliver in sev- 
eral strange lands, and is a step forward in the 
development of the novel. Though this book is 
popular, it is one into which Swift has put the con- 
centration of his hatred for mankind. For Swift 
is a genuine hater, and thinks, as he shows us in 



108 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

Gulliver's Travels, that horses have more intel- 
ligence than human beings. 

Besides these two books, Swift wrote many- 
sharp political articles, and a number of pam- 
phlets containing some very startling propositions. 
One pamphlet, called a Modest Proposal, main- 
tained that the Irish, in order to decrease their 
families, should serve up their young children as 
dainty dishes for the gentry to eat. " I grant," 
he says, "this food will be somewhat dear, and 
therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they 
have already devoured most of the parents, seem 
to have the best title to the children." 

Swift's Style. — The strain of insanity in his 
nature colored all his ideas and distorted his im- 
agination, yet his prose is noted for simplicity, 
clearness, and vigor. Dr. Johnson says, " He 
always understands himself, and his readers always 
understand him." 

READING FOR CHAPTER VII. 

Ashton's Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne gives 
good pictures of this literary period. 

See Ward's English Poets, Vol. II., for specimens of the 
poetry of Dryden and other poets of the period. Also con- 
sult From Chancer to Arnold for Butler, Dryden, Swift, 
Addison, Pope, and Thomson. 

Alexander Pope. — Read the Rape of the Lock entire. 
Read in Ward, Vol. III., the selections from Essay on Man. 

Addison. — Read as many of the Sir Roger de Cover ley 
Papers as possible. 



SUMMARY. 



IOQ 



LITERATURE FROM THE RESTORATION TO THE DEATH 
OF POPE. 



Poetry. 

1. Samuel Butler, 1612-1680 : Hu- 

dibras, 1663. 

2. Edmund Waller. 1605-1687. 

3. John Dryden, 1631-1700: Ab- 

salom and Achitophel, 168 1 ; 
MacFleck?ioe, 1682 ; Religio 
Laid, 1682; The Hind, and 
the Pa?ither, 1687 ; Odes and 
Translations. 

4. Mathew Prior, 1664-1721. 

5. Joseph Addison, 1672-1719 : 

The Campaign, 1704 ; Hymns. 

6. Alexander Pope, 1688-1744: 

The Rape of the Loch, 1714; 
Tra?islation of Iliad, 17 18; 
The D unci ad, 1728 ; Essay on 
Man, 1732. 

7. Ambrose Phillips, 1671-1749. 

8. John Gay, 1688-1732. 

9. Allan Ramsey, 1685-1758 : The 

Gentle Shepherd, 1725. 

10. James Thomson, 1700-1748 : 

The Seasons, 1725-1730. 

Drama. 

1. Thomas Otway, 1651-1685. 

2. Nathaniel Lee, 1650-1690. 

3. John Dryden, 1631-1700: The 

Indian Emperor, 1665 ; Au- 
rengzebe, 1676. 

4. William Congreve, 1670-1729. 



Prose. 

1. Edward Hyde, 1609-1674: His- 

tory of the Civil War. 

2. John Dryden, 1631-1700 : On 

Satire ; On Dramatic Poetry. 

3. John Evelyn, 1620-1706 : Diary. 

4. Samuel Pepys, 1632-1703 : 

Diary. 

5. John Locke, 1632-1706 : Essay 

on the Human Understand- 
ing, 1690. 

6. Gilbert Burnet, 1643-1718 : His- 

tory of the Reformation. 

7. Mrs. Behn, 1642- r Fiction 

1689. I influenced 

8. Mrs.Manley, 1672- 1 by French 

1724. I Romances. 

9. Isaac Newton, 1642-1727 : 

Principia, 1687. 

10. Daniel Defoe, 1661-1731 : 

Robinson Crusoe 17 19-1720. 

11. Jonathan Swift, 1667-1745 : 

A Tale of a Tub, 1697; The 
Battle of the Books, i6gj ; 
Gulliver's Travels, 1726- 
1727. 

12. Joseph Addison, 1672-1719 : 

Essays. 

13. Richard Steele, 1672-1719: 

Essays. 

14. Bishop Butler, 1692-1752: 

Analogy, 1736. 

15. George Berkeley, 1685-1753 : 

The Principles of Human 
Knowledge , 17 10. 

16. Lady Mary Montagu, 1690- 

1762; Letters, 1763. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE AGE OF DR. JOHNSON, 1745-1784. 

SOVEREIGNS OF THE PERIOD. 
George II 1727- 1760. George III 1760-1820. 

This period shows a turn for the better in Eng- 
lish life and literature. 

We have seen that the moral condition of Eng- 
land during the last age was very low. The Church 
had become cold and formal; religion, like the 
literature, had become intellectual, and did not touch 
the heart ; men appointed for other than religious 
motives filled many pulpits, and spent their time 
explaining some pet dogma rather than in teaching 
the rules of Christ. It was put into the heart of 
John Wesley, a student from Oxford, to awaken 
the people from their religious indifference. As- 
sisted by his brother Charles, and by his friend 
George Whitefield, he preached from one end of 
England to the other, and by an appeal to their 
feelings rather than their intellects, convinced the 
people of their evil ways. The strict rules of life 
laid down by Wesley caused his followers to be 
called Methodists. Their preaching led to a great 
spiritual revival which did much to infuse new 
life into the English nation. 



THE AGE OF DR. JOHXSOX. Ill 

Besides a spiritual revival, we have in this period 
purer ideals in politics. William Pitt became the 
great parliamentary leader, and by his high patri- 
otism set an example against bribery and corrup- 
tion. Edmund Burke also lived in this age, and 
used his voice and his pen in favor of pure political 
justice. 

Then, too, in this period England enlarged her 
dominions by gaining control over India, through 
the victories of Robert Clive, in 1757. She also 
gained in America, through the victory of Wolfe 
at Quebec, in 1759, the right to all of North 
America bordering on the Atlantic, and extending 
west as far as the Mississippi ; but she lost during 
this period that territory which now forms the 
eastern half of the United States. Expansion of 
territory and broadening of interests led to a 
broadening of the English mind. 

THE LITERATURE. 

The literature of this period shows a continua- 
tion of the influence of the Greek and Roman 
classics, as well as the beginning of a new spirit. 
French influence still exists, but German writers 
begin to make themselves felt. Some of the 
poetry still keeps in form the precise polished 
couplet, and is still intellectual in tone ; but new 
metres are tried, and a change of spirit from the 
satiric and didactic to a more kindly feeling for 
man as an individual is creeping in. 

Observation and love of Nature are also shown. 



112 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

The fashion for Nature poetry was set by Allan 
Ramsay (1725) in the Gentle Shepherd, and by 
James Thomson (1 726-1 730) in a series of poems 
called the Seasons. William Collins in his Odes 
( 1 746-1 749) also showed a love for Nature. The 
writings of these men helped turn the tide of classic 
influence. 

In addition to this Nature element, the writers 
of the period display a striking love for the wild 
and picturesque. This taste is in opposition to that 
of the preceding age, which had aimed at conven- 
tionality and uniformity. This later spirit, which 
allowed a free play of the imagination and a cer- . 
tain liberalism in all directions, has been called 
romanticism. It was greatly strengthened, in 1762, 
by the publication of the translation of the poems 
of Ossian, by James Macpherson. 

Ossian was a traditional Celtic poet of the third 
century, and much of his poetry was said to exist 
among the Highlands of Scotland. Many people 
thought and still think that what was given out 
for Ossian's was really poetry of Macpherson's 
own composition, but nevertheless the fervid feel- 
ings which it expressed helped the new literary 
movement. 

A novel, called the Castle of Otranto, by Horace 
Walpole (1764), also helped romanticism. The 
scene of the story is laid in an old castle, and the 
book is full of impossible happenings. 

In 1765 Thomas Percy published a collection of 
old English ballads in a volume which he called 



SAMUEL JOHNSON. 113 

Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. It led to a 
great interest in old legends and tales, and bore 
much fruit in the next period. The love for the 
wild and picturesque which had been awakened 
was still further fed by the publication of a book 
on Scandinavian mythology, in 1770, by this same 
Percy of the Reliques. This caused the imagina- 
tion to dwell among the gods of the Northlands as 
well as with those of Greece and Rome. 

The new romantic spirit led also to a more rev- 
erent interest in Shakespeare's works. His plays 
were put upon the stage as they were originally 
written, without any attempt to change the blank 
verse into rime, or to alter them in any way. 
The spirit further led to a renewed interest in the 
imaginative poetry of the great masters, Spenser 
and Milton. Particularly was Milton's lighter 
poetry, U Allegro and II Penscroso, studied and 
followed as a model for composition. 

Thus there is a pronounced turn in thought and 
taste away from the classic school, but as was said 
at the beginning of this chapter, the two elements 
of classicism and romanticism exist together in this 
period. It is not until the next period that the 
romantic element triumphs. 

Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784). — As this period 
takes its name from Johnson we will speak of him 
first. He has been called the literary " king " and 
the " Ursa Major " — the great bear — of this 
period, as well as by other names, some compli- 
mentary and others not. 
1 



114 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

He was born in Lichfield, the only son of a well- 
to-do bookseller, and as he grew to manhood he 
spent many days in his father's shop among the 
books ; he read here and there as he pleased, and 
as a result, when he went to Oxford he was com- 
plimented by one of the professors on his general 
knowledge. Johnson remained at Oxford three 
years, and then, as his father had died leaving him 
without money, he started to London to make his 
living by writing. 

In those days the life of a poor author was mis- 
erable. There was not the opportunity for writing 
that there is now, as no magazines were in exist- 
ence. The pay, too, was very small. Johnson 
starved with the other writers, edited a period- 
ical, wrote poems, a romance, and a dictionary, 
but continued poor until George III. came to the 
throne and granted him a pension of ^300 a year. 
Then it was that his literary kingship began. " He 
seemed to be considered as a kind of public oracle 
whom everybody thought they had a right to visit 
and consult." 

In 1764 the famous literary club known as the 
Johnson Club was formed by the painter, Sir 
Joshua Reynolds, and by Dr. Johnson. To it be- 
longed the prominent literary men of the day, — 
Oliver Goldsmith, Edmund Burke, Percy, author 
of XheReliques, Sheridan, the dramatist, and Adam 
Smith, the Father of Political Economy. Macaulay 
says, " The verdicts pronounced by this conclave 
on new books were speedily known over all Lon- 




SAMUEL JOHNSON 
1709-1784 



SAMUEL JOHNSON. 115 

don, and were sufficient to sell off a whole edition 
in a day, or to condemn the sheets to the service 
of the trunk-maker and the pastry-cook." As 
the centre of this literary group we like best to 
think of Johnson. Here he talked his best, and 
a wonderful talker he was. He was well informed 
on all subjects, and his style was polished and 
correct, though he sometimes did use very long 
words. As he talked he rolled his body from side 
to side, and gasped and puffed for breath as his 
eloquence increased. As he sat thus in the club, 
close at his elbow was James Boswell, a club mem- 
ber from Scotland. With note-book in hand he 
energetically wrote down what he considered inter- 
esting or striking, in regard to Johnson's appear- 
ance and conversation. Boswell was the subject 
of much ridicule, and was not a little annoying to 
Johnson, but his persistency bore good fruit. In 
1793 he published the Life of Dr. Jolinson, the 
best biography ever written, furnishing much 
minute and valuable information. 

Johnson's Personal Appearance and Eccentrici- 
ties. — Johnson's appearance was ungainly. His 
figure was large and portly, his face heavy, and 
scarred with scrofula. His oddities have become 
so famous that no one can get a clear idea of the 
man without some knowledge of them. Johnson 
has sometimes been called a little insane, and it is 
true that he suffered much from melancholia. He 
muttered to himself a great deal when he walked, 
and he walked at all hours of the day and the 



Il6 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

night, and as he passed a post he touched it with 
superstitious awe. He was very careless about his 
dress, and as he lived in the days when snuff- 
taking was fashionable, it was a common thing for 
part of the contents of the snuff-box to be found 
on his clothes. However, he was very generous, 
gave away much to the poor, and " had his house 
full of unfortunates — a blind woman, an invalid 
surgeon, a destitute widow, a negro servant — 
whom he supplied for many years and bore with 
all their ill humors patiently." Johnson's marriage, 
at the age of twenty-five, to a widow nearly twice 
his own age, is perhaps as eccentric as any act of 
his life, and was the cause of much merriment 
among his friends. 

His Writings. — The Dictionary of the English 
Language (1755) is Johnson's most celebrated 
work. This is the first large work of the kind in 
the language, and Johnson spent seven years on 
it. His Lives of the English Poets (1 78 1) is quoted 
a great deal to-day for the information which it 
gives. His Rasselas is a moral tale which was 
written in one week to defray the expenses of his 
mother's funeral. His work for periodicals was 
chiefly in connection with the Rambler and the 
Idler, two papers which he edited in imitation of 
the Spectator. Nearly all the articles are by John- 
son himself. 

As a prose writer Johnson's style is ponderous. 
He uses big Latin words of sonorous sound, and 
balances one idea with another in a most stately way. 



EDMUND BURKE. 117 

In poetry he followed the school of Pope and 
wrote classical verse. He hated romanticism and 
the romantic movement, and used his influence 
against it. His greatest poem is called the Vanity 
of Human Wishes. 

Edmund Burke ( 1 729-1 797) has been mentioned 
as a member of the Johnson Club. He was a 
good friend of Dr. Johnson's, and was among the 
last to visit him as he lay dying. 

Edmund Burke was a writer, a statesman, a 
politician, and an orator. He was born in Ireland 
and was educated at Trinity College, Dublin. After 
leaving college he went to London and studied law 
for a while, but gave it up for the more congenial 
field of literature. In 1756 he published two 
essays : A Vindication of Natural Society and the 
Inquiry into the Sublime and Beautiful. He 
studied history and the existing problems of society 
and government, and in 1765 entered politics by 
becoming secretary to Lord Rockingham, who 
had just become Prime Minister. The same year 
he entered the House of Commons and won imme- 
diate applause by a speech favoring the repeal of 
the Stamp Act. He advocated with enthusiasm 
the cause of the American colonists who were 
struggling for their rights against the bigotry of 
King George III. and a short-sighted Parliament. 
His two finest speeches on the American cause were 
on Taxation (1774) and Conciliation (1775). The 
Conciliation is the better of the two, and in regard to 
structure is among the best which Burke ever made. 



Il8 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

Burke's most brilliant oratory was displayed at 
the trial of Warren Hastings, who was charged 
with high crimes and misdemeanors in connec- 
tion with the recently acquired territory of India. 
Macaulay gives a graphic picture of the scene as 
Burke concluded his impeachment, and of the emo- 
tion which it produced : " Handkerchiefs were 
pulled out; smelling bottles were handed round; 
hysterical sobs and screams were heard. " 

After the trial of Warren Hastings, Burke turned 
his attention to France, where a revolution in the 
affairs of government was taking place. The peo- 
ple rose up, beheaded their king, and made France 
a republic. Burke, while he believed in govern- 
ment/^ the people, did not believe in government 
by the people, and his Reflections on the Revolu- 
tion in France (1790) pointed out the dangers 
which he foresaw for the French. It made Burke 
many enemies, but he lived to see some of his pre- 
dictions come true. 

As a thinker, Burke examined a subject in all 
lights ; as an orator he surpassed both ancients and 
moderns in breadth of understanding and richness 
of imagination, though it is said people liked to 
read his speeches better than they liked to hear 
them delivered ; as a statesman he believed that 
" the principles of true politics are those of moral- 
ity enlarged." To do right was with him the true 
guide in public affairs. 

The Modern Novel, which had its rise during this 
period, was but the outcome of old story-telling, 



THE NOVEL, Iig 

which has existed in one form or another during all 
ages. A thousand years before Christ, Homer 
told the story of Troy — of Achilles' wrath — in 
verse. All through the Middle Ages we find met- 
rical romances, — the stories of Charlemagne, of 
Alexander, and of King Arthur. In the fifteenth 
century, story-telling took the form of the ballad, 
and we have the tales of Robin Hood and of the 
Percies. In the sixteenth century, in the days of 
Queen Elizabeth, John Lyly published his prose 
romance, called Euphues, and Sidney his Arcadia. 
In the seventeenth century we have Bunyan's alle- 
gories, and in the beginning of the eighteenth cen- 
tury we have the story of Robinson Crusoe (1719), 
by Daniel Defoe, and Gulliver's Travels (1726), by 
Jonathan Swift, as well as the sketches of Sir Roger 
de Coverley in the Spectator. 

Difference between the Novel and Other Stories. — 
The romance was originally so called because it 
was written in the Romance languages — the 
Italian, Spanish, or French. The tales in these 
languages were usually about knights, princes, and 
fair ladies, who had remarkable adventures, and 
were often helped out of difficulties by some magic 
or supernatural power. Hence the term romance 
came to be given to any tale of improbable, stirring 
adventure, more or less highly colored to suit the 
author's fancy. 

The novel aims at a " very minute fidelity — not 
merely to the possible, but to the probable and or- 
dinary course of man's experience." It must not 



120 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

turn aside from the truth of the human heart, and 
it must have for its centre a story of love, which 
may or may not end happily. In it one character 
acts upon another and develops the plot. 

It will be readily seen why the romance and the 
allegory are not true novels ; the Sir Roger de Cov- 
erley sketches lack a plot to hold them together; 
Robinson Crusoe and Gulliver's Travels tell the 
adventures of a single person, and thus the devel- 
opment of the story does not depend upon one 
character influencing another. Robinson Crusoe 
has been called more of a biography than a 
novel. 

The First True Novels. — In 1740 was published 
the first book which answers all the requirements 
of the novel. It was called Pamela, and was writ- 
ten by a printer, Samuel Richardson. This book 
was so successful that Richardson followed it by 
two others, Clarissa H arlo we (1748) and Sir Charles 
Grandison (1754). These novels deal with the 
sentiments of the human heart and have a direct 
moral purpose. 

Richardson was followed as novelist by Henry 
Fielding, who laughed at Richardson's sentimental 
ideas, and wrote Joseph Andrews (1742) as a parody 
on Pamela. Later he published Tom Jones, which 
is his masterpiece. Fielding represents all classes 
of society in his books, and writes of life as he 
actually saw it. No other novel so great as Tom 
Jojies appeared during this age, and consequently 
Fielding ranks first among the early novelists. 



EIGHTEENTH CENTURY NOVELISTS. 121 

Tobias Smollett and Laurence Sterne followed in 
the wake of Richardson and Fielding. Smollett 
published Roderick Random (1748) and Peregrine 
Pickle (175 1 ). These are picaresque novels, that 
is, novels in which the characters wander about 
and have wonderful adventures. This form of 
novel originated in Spain, and takes its name from 
the Spanish word picaro^ a rascal, or rogue. Sterne 
wrote Tristram S handy (1759) and A Sentimental 
Journey (1768). Sterne's novels excel in character 
sketching and in subtle humor. 

Samuel Johnson's Rasse/as appeared in 1 759. 
This is a moral tale of a Prince and Princess who 
searched in vain for happiness. A novel of home 
life, the Vicar of Wakefield, was published by Oli- 
ver Goldsmith, in 1 766, and Evelina and Cecilia, by 
Frances Burney, followed a few years after. Miss 
Burney stands among the first English woman 
writers who published their work, and in point of 
time she has the honor to head the list of those 
woman novelists who have been called great. Her 
novels are pictures of society life, and give one a 
good idea of the times. The Castle of Otranto 
(1764), by Horace Walpole, has already been re- 
ferred to as appealing to the growing romantic 
taste of the age. 

Thus we see that the novel when once started 
soon took up all phases of life. A great demand 
arose for the kind of entertainment which it fur- 
nished. The length of the story was no bar to its 
success ; Tristram Shandy was in nine volumes, and 



122 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

still the public did not tire of the hero nor turn 
their backs to Sterne. 

The Poets. — Gray, Goldsmith, and Cowper stand 
out most prominently among the poets of this 
period. They all show the new elements of 
romanticism, love for Nature, and love for man. 

Thomas Gray (1716-I JJ i) shows most plainly the 
melancholy phase of romanticism. He was born 
in London, became a very learned man, and a pro- 
fessor at Cambridge. Although he had plenty 
of leisure, he did not write much. The Elegy 
Written in a Country Churchyard is his most fa- 
mous production. At this time what Professor 
Phelps calls " churchyard poetry " was popular, 
and Gray himself said that it was the subject of the 
poem that the people liked, and not the poetry. 
However, to quote again from Professor Phelps, 
" There are few poems in English literature that 
express the sentiment of the author with such 
felicity and beauty as this elegy." Gray also 
wrote Odes. 

Oliver Goldsmith (1 728-1 774) does not rank 
with English poets of the first class, but he was 
the leading poet during his lifetime. He wrote 
three long poems, the Traveller, the Deserted 
Village, and Retaliation. As he was very inti- 
mate with Dr. Johnson, he was influenced by his 
literary opinions, but his own feelings spoke often 
in his own way. Under Johnson's influence, Gold- 
smith wrote his poetry in the classical couplets of 
Dryden and Pope, but the spirit of his poems is 



GOLDSMITH AND COWPER. 1 23 

the spirit of the new school. He shows a strong 
love for man and a strong love for Nature. His 
verse is clear and easy in expression, as is also 
his prose, a good example of which is seen in his 
novel, the Vicar of Wakefield. 

Life. — On account of his good-humor, gener- 
osity, and eccentricities, Goldsmith's life is most 
interesting. He was born in Ireland, the son of a 
curate, roamed about on the Continent after finish- 
ing his college course, and finally settled down to 
literary work in London. Passages from his own 
life furnished the basis for all his important liter- 
ary works. He was distinctly a humorist in his 
writings, and the butt of his friends' witticisms in 
real life. They laughed at his stammering speech, 
his awkward manners, his poor taste in dressing, 
yet when he took his pen in hand they called him 
an angel. 

William Cowper (1731-1800) was the last, in 
point of time, of the Johnsonian poets. His work 
begins after Goldsmith's ends. He wrote hymns, 
lyrics, and translated Homer, but his greatest 
poem is called the Task. " Cowper spoke out of 
his own life experience, his agony, his love, his 
worship and despair ; and straightway the varnish 
that had glittered over all our poetry since the 
time of Dry den melted away." 

Cowper was the son of a clergyman, and was 
born at Great Berkhampstead. He was shy and 
sensitive, and the loss of his mother when he was 
six years old, and unpleasant experiences at a 



124 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

boarding-school to which he was sent, made his 
childhood wretched. He never overcame his timid- 
ity, and as he grew to manhood, morbidness and 
melancholy developed into insanity. He was sent 
to an asylum in 1763, and, after remaining there a 
year, came out restored to health, but unfit for 
steady employment. He found a good home in 
the family of Mrs. Unwin, where he lived until 
his death, spending his time in simple employ- 
ments about the garden, in writing verses, and in 
fighting the predisposition to melancholy, which 
led him to make two attempts upon his life, and to 
believe himself at last an outcast from God. 

The Task is so called because it was written as 
a task for Lady Austen. She wished the poet to 
write something in blank verse, and to please her 
he wrote this. It is a poem of simple country 
sights and sounds. We are told of the coming of 
the post-boy, of the tea-drinking, of the days spent 
in the garden, and of walks through fields and 
lanes. Throughout the poem, country life is pic- 
tured as preferable to city life. The city is 
" proud, and gay, and gain-devoted," but " God 
made the country." The poem is full of moraliz- 
ing, and because of its didactic nature, in the age 
in which it was written, it was a favorite with the 
religiously inclined. 

Cowper as Poet. — Cowper says, in his letters, 
that he wrote for his own amusement, and it is 
this absence of striving to please critics that makes 
his poems charming. He is original, for he read 



THE DRAMA. 125 

almost no poetry himself, and wrote only of what 
he saw with his own eyes or felt with his own 
heart. He says in the Task: — 

•• Xo bard could please me but whose lyre was tuned 
To Nature's praises. Heroes and their feats 
Fatigued me." 

Cowper is not a poet of the highest order, for 
no great surges of passion inspire him to write — 
" The only passion that really moved him was the 
morbid passion of despair." There is a religious 
fanaticism about his thoughts, and a puritanical 
narrowness of ideas, that repel one, and yet we 
may find much in his poetry to sympathize with 
and to admire. 

The Drama. — In this age some good dramatic 
work was done by Oliver Goldsmith and Richard 
Brinsley Sheridan, both of whom wrote comedies. 
She Stoops to Conquer (1773) is Goldsmith's best 
drama, and the Rivals (1775) and the School for 
Scandal {1777) are the greatest of Sheridan's 
plays. The plays of both authors are still on the 
stage, and rank among the best comedies in the 
language. In fact, Sheridan and Goldsmith are 
the last dramatic writers of note that we have. 

The Historians. — History now becomes some- 
thing more than the mere chronicle of events 
which the earlier centuries show. It enters into a 
discussion of cause and effect, and shows how one 
event produced another. It is written in an inter- 
esting, eloquent way ; characters are well ana- 
lyzed ; their good points and their bad points are 



126 



ENGLISH LITERATURE. 



shown, and good descriptions are made. Hume, 
Robertson, and Gibbon are the great names. 
David Hume wrote the History of England r (1754); 
William Robertson, the History of Scotland (1759) 
and Charles V. (1769); Edward Gibbon, the Decline 
and Fall of the Roman Empire (1 776-1 787). 

READING FOR CHAPTER VIII. 
Samuel Johnson. — Rasselas. 

Oliver Goldsmith. — The Deserted Village and the Vicar 
of Wakefield. 

Edmund Burke. — Conciliation with America. 
Thomas Gray. — Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard. 
"William Cowper. — The Task, Book IV. to line 194 ; On 
Receipt of My Mothers Picture ; fohn Gilpin. 

Consult Ward's English Poets and George's From Chaucer 
to Arnold for good selections. 

Chapters VIII. and IX. in Minto's Literature of the 
Georgian Era give a good account of the rise of the novel ; 
also Chapters V. and VI. in Walter Raleigh's, the English 
Novel. 

LITERATURE OF THE AGE OF DR. JOHNSON. 

Task, 1785; Translation of 
Homer, 179 1. 

6. Edward Young, 1684-1765 : 
Night Thoughts, 1742. 

7. John Dyer, 1698-1758 : The 
Fleece, 1757. 



1709-1784 : 
Vanity of 
1749. 
1721-1759 : 



Poetry. 

Samuel Johnson, 
London, 1738 ; 
Human Wishes, 

William Collins, 
Odes. 

Thomas Gray, 1716-1771 : 
Odes; Elegy Written in a 
Country Churchyard, 175 1. 

Oliver Goldsmith, 1728-1774 : 
The Traveller, 1764; The 
Deserted Village, 1770; Re- 
taliation, 1774. 

William Cowper, 1731-1800: 
Olney Hymns, 1779; The 



Thomas Chatterton, 1752-1770 : 
Rowley Poems, 1764-1770. 

The Drama. 
Oliver Goldsmith, 1728-1774: 

She Stoops to Conquer, 1773. 
Richard Brinsley Sheridan, 

1751-1816 : The Rivals, 1775 ; 

The School for Scandal, 

1777. 



SUMMARY. 



127 



Prose. 

1. Samuel Johnson, 1709-1784: 

Life of Richard Savage, 
1744 ; Dictionary of the Eng- 
lish Language, 1755 ; Lives 
of the English Poets, 1779. 

2. David Hume, 1711-1776: His- 

tory of England, 1754. 

3. William Robertson, 1731-1792: 

History of Scotland, 1759. 

4. Edward Gibbon, 1737-1794: 

The Decline and Fall of the 
Roman Empire, 1776. 

5. Adam Smith, 1723-1790 : The 

Wealth of Nations, 1776. 

6. Edmund Burke, 1729-1797: 

Vindication of Natural So- 
ciety, 1756; Inquiry into the 
Sublime and Beautiful, 1756 ; 

Conciliation with America, 
1775 ; The Nabob of Ar cot's 
Debts, 1785 ; Refections on the 
Revolution i?i France, 1790. 

7. Philosophers : — 

a. David Hartley, 1705-1757. 

b. David Hume, 1711-1776. 

c. Thomas Reid, 1710-1796. 

d. Joseph Priestley, 1733- 

1804. 

8. Letter Writers: — 

a. Lord Chesterfield, 1694- 
*773- 



b. Horace Walpole, 1717- 

1797. 

c. Frances Burney, 1752- 

1840. 

d. Thomas Gray, 1716-1771. 

e. William Cowper, 1731- 

1800. 
9. Novelists : — 

a. Samuel Richardson, 1689- 

1761 : Pamela, 1740; 
Clarissa Harlowe, 1748. 

b. Henry Fielding, 1707- 

1754 : Joseph Andrews, 
1742; Tom Jones, 1749. 

c. Tobias Smollett, 1721- 

177 1 ; Roderick Random, 
1748 ; Peregri?ie Pickle, 

175 1. 

d. Laurence Sterne, 1713- 

1768 : Tristram Shandy, 
1759 ; A Sentimental 
Jour?iey, 1768. 

e. Samuel Johnson, 1709- 

1784 : Rasselas, 1759. 

f. Oliver Goldsmith, 1728- 

1774 : The Vicar of 
Wakefield, 1766. 

g. Frances Burney, 1752- 

1840 ; Evelina, 1778 ; 
Cecilia, 1782. 
h. Horace Walpole, 1717- 
1797 : The Castle of 
Otranto, 1764. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE AGE OF REVOLUTION, 1784-1832. 

SOVEREIGNS OF THE PERIOD. 

George III. . . . 1760-1820. George IV 1820-1830. 

William IV 1830-1837. 

This age is called the Age of Revolution, because 
in it the leading writers show a complete change 
of thought, taste, and expression from that of the 
classical age of Dryden and Pope. This change 
was brought about by the triumph of the romantic 
movement which was begun in the last period, by 
the introduction of German writings, and by po- 
litical changes in France. 

In 1789, as the result of years of oppression, the 
French people rose up against their government 
and began the French Revolution. The hatred of 
ages gathered in one wild cry for vengeance, and 
resulted in 1793 in the beheading of the French 
king, Louis XVI., and his queen, Marie Antoinette. 
The rights of man ! the rights of the individual ! 
liberty and equality ! were the cries which echoed 
everywhere in France. They crossed the Channel, 
and were taken up by many people in England 
who sympathized at first with the revolutionists. 
Enthusiastic minds saw in this overthrow of the 

128 



THE AGE OF REVOLUTION. 129 

old order of society a rare chance for man's social, 
political, and spiritual development. To them it 
cast aside the complexities of civilization and 
prepared the way for a return to the natural sim- 
plicity of life. Under the influence of these ideas 
men threw aside the powdered wigs of the days of 
Addison, and cropped their hair as close as the 
Puritans in the time of Charles I. They tore the 
lace from their sleeves, and the buckles from their 
knees, and adopted the costume which is worn 
to-day. 

But the French Revolution, so far as accom- 
plishing what its enthusiastic supporters at first 
expected, was a failure. The European nations 
became alarmed, and England united with the 
other powers to restore monarchy in France. This 
led to a war with Napoleon Bonaparte, who was 
then at the head of French affairs, and who was 
not conquered until 181 5, when the battle of 
Waterloo was fought. 

As the rights of man, the rights of the indi- 
vidual, liberty and equality were the cries of the 
French revolutionists, so these words became 
the themes of the writers of England. New ideas 
— revolutionary ideas — in regard to religion, gov- 
ernment, and social life were put forth. These, 
united with the love of the picturesque, the love of 
old legends, the love of the marvellous and of the 
imaginative, indulged in by the romanticists, made 
the Age of Revolution indeed an age to w r onder 
at and admire. 



130 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

THE POETRY. 

This age shows great variety in verse forms, 
and great variety in poetic subjects. The new 
elements of love of Nature, sympathy with man, 
and love of the picturesque, which began in the 
Age of Johnson, grow in intensity, and to them are 
added love of children and of animals. These last 
two characteristics are plainly shown in the writ- 
ings of William Blake, whose Songs of Innocence 
(1789) is a direct influence in strengthening the 
romantic spirit of the age. 

In the poetry, too, more than in the prose, — for 
the prose writers come later, — are shown the ideas 
which were intensified by the French Revolution. 
The poets of this period who best illustrate the 
ideas of romanticism and revolution are : Burns, 
Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey, Scott, Byron, 
Shelley, and Keats. 

Robert Burns ( 1 759- 1 796) was a handsome, witty 
Scotch poet, whose ardent nature led him into 
many indulgences and much unhappiness. 

He was born on a farm in Ayrshire, on the 
banks of a river, which, in one of his poems, he 
calls " bonny Doon." He received little educa- 
tion, but the old songs of the Scottish people at- 
tracted him ; and as he sang at his work he made 
verses to suit himself. The things about him — 
Nature and the animal life of the farm — suggested 
topics for his rimes, and so he sang of the moun- 
tain daisy, of the mouse nest that his plough dis- 
turbed, of the sheep, and of the "auld mare 



ROBERT BURNS. 131 

Maggie." It was love, he says, that made him 
first a poet, and many of his poems are exquisite 
love songs, strong and genuine in feeling, which 
touch the heart as the best poetry of the two ages 
preceding fail to do. Ae Fond Kiss, To Mary in 
Heaven, and My Luve is like a Red, Red Rose, are 
good examples of his love poetry. 

In 1785 Burns published a volume of his poems, 
and found himself famous. As a result, he spent 
the winter of 1786 in Edinburgh, the centre of an 
admiring group. Soon after he married, settled 
on a farm, and became a tax collector. He sym- 
pathized strongly with the French revolutionists, 
and was accused of disloyalty to his own govern- 
ment, but nothing serious came of the charge. 
The spirit of revolt, however, against the old order 
of society, is shown in several of his poems. 

" What tho 1 on namely fare we dine, 
Wear hodden gray, and a' that ; 
Gie fools their silks, and knaves their wine, 
A man's a man for a 1 that,*' 

he sings. 

Although Burns's popularity as a poet comes 
mainly through his songs, two long poems, the Cot- 
ter's Saturday Night and Tarn O" Slianter, are justly 
famous. The former describes Scottish life in a 
peasant's cottage, and the latter tells what befell 
a countryman who paused one night to see the 
witches dance in Alloway kirk. It contains de- 
lightful humor, and by some is considered Burns's 
masterpiece. 



132 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

Burns is both a romanticist and a revolutionist. 
His poetry shows love of Nature, belief in the 
equality of man, simplicity, and genuine feelings 
expressed because they are too strong to be kept 
back. 

Three Friends : Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey. 
— These men were drawn together by sympathy of 
ideas, and as, during part of their literary careers, 
they dwelt near each other in the Lake district 
of northwest England, they are commonly called 
"The Lake School Poets." Of the three, Words- 
worth and Coleridge were the deep, philosophical 
thinkers, Southey, the worker. 

Coleridge and Southey were friends first. They 
met at Oxford, where Southey was attending 
college and Coleridge was visiting friends. In 
their enthusiasm over the ideas which the French 
Revolution had set loose, they planned an ideal 
community to be located in Pennslyvania, on the 
Susquehanna, where man should work but two 
hours a . day, and where all goods should be held 
in common. They married sisters, and were ready 
to embark for this ideal commonwealth ; but as 
they could not get together sufficient money for 
the expense of the ocean voyage, the project was 
given up, and the two young men remained in 
England and devoted themselves to writing and 
thinking. Southey did most of the writing ; Cole- 
ridge, the thinking and dreaming. 

Southey, during his life, wrote over one hundred 
volumes of poetry and prose; made money, and 



WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. 1 33 

supported Coleridge and his family for a time, yet 
his volumes are mainly unread to-day. He held 
the office of poet laureate of England, yet he is 
now considered a poet of very ordinary ability, as 
he lacked true inspiration. His early poems are 
full of the spirit of revolt. Wat Tyler (1794) is a 
good specimen of his revolutionary ideas. A prose 
work, the Life of Nelson^ is one of the best things 
that he ever wrote. 

William Wordsworth was born at Cockermouth, 
in northwestern England, in 1770. Both of his 
parents died before he reached manhood. He 
received the ordinary university education, and 
showed his enthusiasm for the ideas of the French 
revolutionists by a visit to France. In 1795, with 
his sister Dorothy, who, during his whole life, ex- 
ercised a great influence over him, he went to live 
at Racedown, Dorsetshire, in southern England. 
Here, in 1797, Coleridge, who was living not far 
away, and who had become interested in some 
poems which Wordsworth had written, visited him 
for the first time, and the friendship began which 
meant so much to both. One poet stimulated the 
other. Coleridge did his best work under the in- 
fluence of Wordsworth, and many of Wordsworth's 
best poems were written under the inspiration of 
Coleridge. In speaking of Coleridge, Wordsworth 
says, " He and my sister are the two beings to 
whom my intellect is most indebted." 

After a year or two of friendship, Coleridge and 
Wordsworth, accompanied by the latter's sister, 



134 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

went to Germany to study the language, literature, 
and customs of the people. On their return to 
England in 1799, they settled in the Lake dis- 
trict near Wordsworth's birthplace, and Southey 
joined them. 

Coleridge now gave to the world the translation 
of Schiller's Wallenstein, and thus introduced Ger- 
man literature into England. He also introduced 
German thought, for he had become much inter- 
ested in the works of Lessing, Kant, and other 
German critics and philosophers, and their ideas 
colored what he wrote or said. His literary work 
from this time, however, does not amount to 
much, for some time before he had begun to take 
opium for medicine, and now was a slave to the 
opium habit. He could not concentrate his mind 
for steady work. We find him beginning beautiful 
poems like Kubla Khan, which is really the result 
of an opium dream, and breaking off just as our 
interest has been fairly aroused. The last eigh- 
teen years of his life he lived as a patient with a 
London physician, and died at his residence in 1834. 

As a Poet Coleridge is noted for his imagination, 
for his musical verse, and for his fine diction. The 
Ancient Mariner, which was written during the 
early years of his friendship with Wordsworth, is, 
unfortunately, almost the only poem that he fin- 
ished. This illustrates not only the poetic quali- 
ties mentioned, but teaches great moral truths. 
His unfinished poem Christabel is considered the 
most musical in the language. 



COLERIDGE AND WORDSWORTH. 135 

As a Talker Coleridge had almost as great a rep- 
utation as Dr. Johnson. Even in his college days 
the students flocked to his room to hear his criti- 
cisms on the latest pamphlets and his views of the 
French Revolution. Most of his conversations after 
he left college were at his own residence. There, 
" throughout a long-drawn summer's day," says 
his nephew, " would this man talk to you in low, 
equable, but clear and musical tones, concerning 
things human and divine." At one time Coleridge 
gave public talks in London on Shakespeare. 
Parts of these latter talks, preserved in the notes 
of his hearers, were published after Coleridge's 
death, and are among the most valuable criticisms 
ever written of the works of the great dramatist. 
As a critic and a philosopher Coleridge stands high. 

Wordsworth. — After his return from Germany, 
Wordsworth lived a quiet life in the Lake region 
and devoted himself to poetry and thought. His 
verses were rudely criticised at first, and he was 
denied the name of poet. To-day he is ranked with 
the best poets that England has produced. The 
adverse criticism to which his poems were subject 
was due to his poetic theories, which differed from 
the ideas of the school of Dryden and Pope. He 
believed in writing poetry in plain, simple lan- 
guage, so that every one could understand it. He 
believed, also, in choosing his subjects from the 
common things of life rather than from old tale 
of heroes or far-off things. In his poetic the- 
ories, choice of subjects, simplicity of diction, 



136 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

naturalness of expression, and love for Nature and 
for man, he was a decided revolutionist. As a 
poet of Nature he was particularly conspicuous. 
He not only described what he saw, but he spoke 
of Nature as if she were alive, possessed of a 
breathing soul, with which man could commune at 
all hours if he were in the right mood. 

Wordsworth's "Writings. — Wordsworth wrote many 
short poems, sonnets, and lyrics. His long poems 
are the Prelude, which records the growth of the 
poet's mind, and the Excursion, which pictures 
country scenes and the poet's feelings in connec- 
tion with them. His great Ode on Immortality 
gives us some idea of his philosophy; and his 
fine sonnet, Toussaint U Ouverture, reveals his 
sympathy for the downtrodden, and his belief in 
the triumph of right. In his endeavor to carry 
out his theories in regard to simplicity of diction, 
sometimes his language falls far below that of true 
poetry. Much of the time, however, he departs 
from his own theories, and occasionally we come 
across lines as rich as Shakespeare's or as grand 
as Milton's. When he is at his best, his simplicity 
is that of true art. Rttth, Lucy, To a Highland 
Girl, the Daffodils, and the Solitary Reaper are 
good examples of his simple style. 

Sir Walter Scott (i 771-1832) is a very different 
poet from Wordsworth. He is a romanticist. The 
castle, the ruined abbey, the ivy-mantled tower, the 
knight in armor, the nun, the lady in her silken 
robes, mingle in his poems in many a picture of 




1771-1832 



SIR WALTER SCOTT'S POETRY. 137 

glowing sunset or battle clang. His poetry is stir- 
ring and breezy, and lacks the contemplative mood 
of Wordsworth's. It appeals to the imagination, 
but it does not touch the heart. Scott writes of 
externals, and not of the deep emotions of the soul. 

He was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. While at 
school and college he neglected mathematics and 
the classics, but took a keen interest in general 
literature. Through visiting relatives in the coun- 
try, he became acquainted with many old ballads 
and legends, and a love for the romantic was stimu- 
lated. He read with delight Percy's Reliques, and 
similar tales wherever he found them. After leav- 
ing college he studied law with his father, but took 
many excursions into the Highland region in order 
to hear the legends of the country. 

In 1796 Scott published a translation of some 
German ballads, written by Burger, who had died 
in 1794, and who had himself been influenced by 
Percy's Reliqnes. In 1805 Scott began original 
work as a poet by publishing the Lay of the Last 
Minstrel. Marmion came out in 1808, and the 
Lady of the Lake in 18 10. These poems are all 
narratives, and show Scott's love for traditions and 
Scottish customs and scenery. They were im- 
mensely popular from the dates of their publica- 
tions, and other narrative poems followed ; but 
Byron was gaining public favor, and Scott, feeling 
in Byron's poetry a force and fire which he could 
not equal, in 18 14 gracefully retired as poet to tell 
his stories in prose. 



138 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

Lord George Gordon Byron ( 1 78 8- 1 824), who out- 
did Scott as a poet, was called the handsomest man 
in all Europe. He came of an old illustrious fam- 
ily, and at the age of ten, by the death of an uncle, 
inherited the estate of Newstead Abbey, which he 
made his home. His pride in his ancestry was un- 
bounded, and he made so much show of it that at 
college he was called the " Old English Baron." 
He grew up in luxury, but mismanagement and 
his natural disposition combined to make him dis- 
satisfied and out of sorts with himself, the world, 
and God. In 181 5 he was married. In 1816 his 
wife refused to live with him, and as public senti- 
ment was strong against him, Byron left England 
for Italy, never to return. 

In Italy he found Shelley and the Irish poet, 
Thomas Moore, and spent some time in their society. 
But his mind was not at rest. Embittered by his 
domestic troubles, and stung to madness by the 
actions of his associates in England, he proudly 
hurled defiance at the laws of society, and plunged 
into a reckless course of dissipation, from which he 
was roused only by the breaking out of the war 
between Greece and Turkey. 

Greece had long been a dependency of the Turk- 
ish empire, but in 1821 she asserted herself and 
resolved to be free. Byron, who loved mortals 
that — 

" dared to ponder for themselves, 
To weigh kings in the balance, and to speak 
Of freedom, the forbidden fruit, 1 ' 



LORD BYRON. 1 39 

resolved to help the Grecians. They received him 
gladly, and if he had lived he might have done 
something in a military way to redeem his past 
follies ; but he died of a fever at Missolonghi, after 
he had been in the Grecian service but a few 
months. 

Even so short a sketch of his life would lead one 
to conclude that Byron's ideas were revolutionary. 
They were intensely so, but they arose more from 
his turbulent, defiant nature than from any broad 
conception of the rights of humanity. He would 
destroy the governments, the social and the moral 
laws which then existed, but he had nothing to give 
in their place. 

His Poetry. — Byron began to write poetry at 
an early age, and published some verses while 
at college. The poem that made him famous was 
Cliilde Harold's Pilgrimage. This was partly 
written during a tour of the Continent (1809- 
181 1), and contains descriptions of many places 
which he visited, and thoughts suggested by them. 
In its finished form it represents Byron's best 
work. 

After Childe Harold Byron wrote a great deal 
on a great variety of subjects and in many differ- 
ent metres. Many of his early poems are long 
narratives of Eastern life after the romantic man- 
ner of Scott. Unhappy, bitter-minded heroes storm 
through them all, yet the poems were eagerly read 
by the public, and Byron became the literary and 
social hero of the hour. A poem of more lasting 



140 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

merit than these Eastern tales is the Prisoner of 
Chillon, which appeared in 1816. 

During his last years on the Continent, Byron's 
poetry became wildly rebellious and markedly sa- 
tiric. At this time he wrote the dramas Manfred 
and Cain, and the poem Don yuan. 

Characteristics. — Byron was rapid and often care- 
less in composition, dashing off verses after a so- 
ciety ball or midnight supper, and giving small 
time to their correction, yet his poetry is witty, 
brilliant, full of strong, deep feeling and intense 
passion. It is also full of Byron, for his poetry 
reflects the man. He himself is the one hero who, 
under different names and in different disguises, 
appears everywhere. He is Childe Harold, Man- 
fred, and Don Juan, but he is so morbid, so mel- 
ancholy, so love-lorn, so dissatisfied, so rebellious, 
that he is not a pleasant figure to meet at every 
turn. Only in Nature, he said, did he ever lose 
self-consciousness. 

" There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, 
There is a rapture on the lonely shore, 
There is society, where none intrudes, 
By the deep sea, and music in its roar," 

he tells us in Childe Harold. 

For Nature he had a genuine love ; the mountain 
peak, the crag, the storm, the thunder, and the 
lightning called forth his grandest emotions. His 
love for the sea, too, is very marked, and through- 
out his poems are many fine passages in praise of 
it. Not only did he like to look at the sea and 




LORD GEORGE NOEL GORDON BYRON 

1788-1824 



PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY. 141 

listen to its music and write about it, but he de- 
lighted to plunge into it and swim on and on in 
perfect confidence. He once swam across the 
Hellespont, in imitation of Leander, as he tells us 
with some pride in Don yuan. 

But Byron was not always so genuine in his 
expression of other sentiments as he was in the ex- 
pression of his feelings for Nature. He liked to 
pose for the admiration of the multitude, and often 
wrote what he thought would please, or thought 
sounded well, no matter how he felt. A poet who 
writes for the times in which he lives, and who does 
not write truly of the unchanging emotions of the 
human heart, cannot expect immortal fame, and 
so Byron is not so great a favorite now as in the 
early years of the nineteenth century. Yet in spite 
of carelessness, moodiness, and insincerity, scat- 
tered throughout his writings, even in the midst 
of passages which we dislike most are many lines 
of great beauty which cannot die. 

Percy Bysshe Shelley ( 1 792- 1 822) was the most 
revolutionary of all the revolutionary poets. He 
rebelled against all authority, social, civil, and re- 
ligious. He was educated at Eton and at Oxford, 
but was expelled from Oxford in 181 1 on account 
of publishing a tract favoring atheism. The same 
year he ran away with Harriet Westbrook and 
married her in Scotland. A few years later he 
went to the Continent to live. The last four years 
of his life were spent in Italy. He was drowned 
in the Gulf of Spezia while out sailing. His body 



142 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

was burned, and his ashes were buried in the Prot> 
estant cemetery at Rome, next to the grave of 
Keats. In spite of the irregular things which 
he did, his character is said to have been pure, 
spiritual, and noble. 

Poems. — Shelley began to publish his poems 
while still in his teens. The Cenci, Prometheus 
Unbound, and Adonais — the latter in memory of 
Keats — are his best long poems. Of his shorter 
ones, the Ode to the West Wind is considered the 
most perfect ; To a Skylark and the Cloud are 
among the most exquisite lyrics in the language. 

In Prometheus Unbound Shelley rebels against 
the cruelties and oppressions of the world. Pro- 
metheus is the old Greek hero who was chained 
by Jove for disobedience. In the poem he stands 
for the human spirit fighting against divine oppres- 
sion; Jove is the personification of law and tyranny. 
Prometheus unbound represents man when he is 
free to do as reason and impulse guide him. In 
this poem, it has been said, Shelley comes nearer 
to the sublime than any poet since Milton. 

Characteristics. — In Shelley's poetry, rich imagi- 
nation, wealth of imagery, and exquisite melody 
abound ; but there is a lack of substantial thought. 
He is ethereal, light, and airy in his moods, and 
consequently he is a " poet's poet" rather than the 
delight of the ordinary man. 

John Keats (i 795-1 821) led a short and rather 
unhappy life. His father held the humble posi- 
tion of hostler in a London stable, but his mother's 



JOHN KEATS. 143 

family had some means, and the poet attended a 
private school until he was fifteen, when he was 
apprenticed to a surgeon. He never finished his 
apprenticeship, however, but abandoned it for a 
literary career. At the age of twenty-five he died 
of consumption in Rome, where he had gone hop- 
ing that his health might be benefited. 

Reading Spenser first awoke the poetic genius 
of Keats, and he began poetry by imitating the 
Spenserian verse. He was greatly interested, 
also, in translations from the Greek. Chapman's 
version of the Iliad especially delighted him and 
called forth a fine ode. In 18 17 his first volume 
of poems was published. At this time he is de- 
scribed as being " a small, handsome, ardent-look- 
ing youth," with " eyes hazel-brown, liquid-flashing, 
visibly inspired." Though this first volume was 
not well received, Keats began the long poem 
Endymion, which was published in 18 18. It was 
shamefully criticised and ridiculed in Blackwood's 
Magazine and the Quarterly, but Keats, though 
deeply hurt, continued his writing, and produced 
many fine odes and sonnets as well as longer 
poems. Among these later poems, the Eve of St. 
Agnes, Hyperion, To a Nightingale, the Ode on a 
Grecian Urn, and La Belle Dame sans Merci are 
representative of his best work. 

His Characteristics. — Keats is preeminently the 
poet of beauty. Revolutionary ideas which would 
overturn society did not attract him. He showed 
no sign of caring whether " liberty, ea x iiality, and 



144 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

fraternity " triumphed in the world or not. He 
loved the past, the old myths of Greece and Rome, 
as his poems Hyperion and Endymion show, and a 
world of beauty which his imagination pictured. 

" Let the winged Fancy roam, 
Pleasure never is at home," 

he sings. He revels in sound and color and beau- 
tiful expressions. He could die and " fade away 
into the forest dim " when listening to the night- 
ingale's song; " hedge-grown primroses,'' " white- 
plum'd lilies," "the daisy and the marigold," and 
the " musk-rose, full of dewy wine," attract him. 
With him beauty and truth were inseparable. His 
lines at the end of the Ode on a Grecian Urn tell 
us — 

" Beauty is truth, truth beauty — that is all 
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know." 

Matthew Arnold calls Keats's poetry Shake- 
spearian, " because its expression has that rounded 
perfection and felicity of loveliness of which Shake- 
speare is the great master." It truly is wonderful, 
especially when we consider that Keats lived so 
short a life. 

Keats as a Revolutionist. — But though Keats in 
his poetry shows no desire to overturn society, he 
is nevertheless, a revolutionist, for the manner in 
which he writes and his choice of subjects are an 
overturning of the style of Dryden, Pope, and the 
poets of the classical school. Instead of using 
the precise couplet where the sense is complete at 



PROSE WRITERS. 1 45 

the end of each two lines, his verse is elastic and 
graceful, breathed full of deep, ecstatic feeling. 
To him the Dryden-Pope writers were " dismal 
souled." In his poem called Sleep and Poetry, he 
rails at them for their deadness to the influences of 
Nature, and for their following of fixed rules. He 
says to them : — 

u . . . beauty was awake ! 
Why were ye not awake ? But ye were dead 
To things ye knew not of— were closely wed 
To musty laws lined out with wretched rule 
And compass vile : so that ye taught a school 
Of dolts to smooth, inlay, and clip, and fit. 
Till, like the certain wands of Jacob's wit 
Their verses tallied. " 

Keats was no follower of " musty laws." His 
poetry is the triumph of the romantic movement. 

THE PROSE. 

The prose of this period, though not so remark- 
able as the poetry, numbers among its writers 
many names which still rank high in literature. 
In essay writing we have Thomas De Quincey and 
Charles Lamb ; in fiction, Sir Walter Scott and 
Miss Austen ; in history, Henry Hallam. All 
these writers gained prominence in the last half 
of the period, after the year eighteen hundred. 
Their writings show principally the influence of 
romanticism. 

A feature of the time which made a strong lit- 
erary influence, and gave many persons a chance 



146 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

to publish their thoughts in essay form, was the 
periodicals. During this age they multiplied, 
came into great prominence, and assumed a more 
modern character. The magazines of the eigh- 
teenth century, not including the Spectator, were 
dull, sleepy affairs, and generally uninteresting ; 
the new periodicals were lively and vigorous in 
style. They included both reviews and magazines. 
The reviews were published quarterly. They dis- 
cussed political questions and offered the public 
articles of literary criticism. The magazines pub- 
lished stories, poems, and correspondence, and 
were like the magazines of to-day, except that they 
lacked illustrations. 

The characteristics of these periodicals were 
intense party spirit, a tone of absolute certainty 
on all subjects, and a shameful abuse of living 
authors. Party spirit led to praise or harsh criti- 
cism of an author, according to whether he was 
Whig or Tory in politics ; the tone of absolute cer- 
tainty made it difficult to convince the editors of 
their mistakes, even when they were most apparent 
to others ; and abuse of authors led to much bitter- 
ness of feeling, and in some cases to duels. 

The Periodicals. — Among the reviews, the 
Edinburgh stands first in regard to date of pub- 
lication. This was Whig in politics. It was 
founded in 1802, in Edinburgh, by Sydney Smith, 
the witty English clergyman, and a number of 
lawyer friends, among whom was Francis Jeffrey. 
Jeffrey became its first editor, and continued in 



LITERARY REVIEWS. 147 

charge of the periodical for twenty-six years. He 
contributed many articles himself, mostly on lit- 
erary subjects. He was unmerciful in his denun- 
ciation of the poetry of Wordsworth, Southey, and 
Coleridge, but he was considered a very brilliant 
writer. Other famous contributors to the Edin- 
burgh during this period were William Hazlitt and 
Henry Hallam. 

In 1809 the London Quarterly appeared. This 
was the organ of the Tory party, and its publica- 
tion was intended to counteract the power of the 
Edinburgh. It was edited by William Gifford, 
who was succeeded by James Lockhart, the son-in- 
law of Sir Walter Scott. Famous contributors 
were Sir Walter Scott and Robert Southey. This 
magazine made the severe criticism on Keats's En- 
dymion, which was supposed, for a time, to have 
brought on the illness that caused Keats's death. 

In 1824 the Westminster Review was begun by 
Jeremy Bentham to set forth the views of the 
radicals in politics. A prominent contributor and 
supporter was James Mill, the philosopher and 
•political economist. 

Of the modern magazines, the first was Black- 
wood's, so called because it was founded by 
William Blackwood. It was first published in 
Edinburgh in 18 17. It was Tory in politics, and 
was edited by John Wilson, who wrote delightful 
articles under the pen name of Christopher North. 
These articles were called Nodes Ambrosiance. 
They were imaginary dialogues between famous 



148 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

men of that time who were supposed to gather at 
Ambrose's tavern in Edinburgh. 

Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859). — Among the 
essay writers of this period De Quincey stands first 
as a master of style. 

He was born in Manchester, attended the Man- 
chester grammar school, and later went to Oxford. 
He became an ardent admirer of Wordsworth and 
Coleridge, and lived near them in the Lake dis- 
trict for about twenty years. Here he studied 
German writers, and with Coleridge helped to in- 
troduce German thought into England. He was 
a man of wide and various learning, of remarkable 
memory, and of great conversational powers, but 
of eccentric habits. He loved solitude, and had a 
disposition to wander about alone. This was shown 
even when he was a boy, for he ran away from the 
Manchester school and led a vagrant life for more 
than a year. He was an opium eater, but he did 
not allow the habit to control him utterly as Cole- 
ridge did. He was able to write essay after 
essay, until his collected works amount to sixteen 
volumes. 

The first work of De Quincey's which laid a 
solid foundation for his literary career, was a serial 
which appeared in the London Magazine in 1821. 
It was called Confessions of an English Opium 
Eater, In this he gave some account of his early 
wanderings, as well as the story of his opium 
habit. This was followed by a great number of 
essays on a wide range of subjects. Among 



DE QUINCEY AND LAMB. 149 

his famous essays are : Murder Considered as One 
of the Fine Arts, the Flight of a Tartar Tribe, 
and the English Mail Coach. 

As a master of style, De Quincey's first charac- 
teristic is versatility. He changes his manner of 
expression to suit the subject in hand. In general 
his style is stately, elaborate, and imaginative. 
Often, as in the Confessions, and in the beautiful 
sketch called Levana and Our Ladies of Sorrow, 
it becomes what De Quincey himself calls " prose- 
poetry" — a dreamy, gliding style, admirably suited 
to the dreams, recollections, or visions about which 
he wrote. Delicate pathos and fine humor also 
appear. Of the latter, Micrder Considered as One 
of the Fine Arts is a most pleasing ironical example. 
Besides, he was keenly critical, as his biographical 
sketches of Wordsworth, Coleridge, and others 
show. His style is not perfect, but we forgive 
the faults for the excellences. 

Charles Lamb ( 1 775-1834) differs from De Quin- 
cey in the general style of his writing, though the 
two men have some characteristics in common. 

Lamb was born in the Temple, London, where 
his father was a poor clerk in the service of Mr. 
Samuel Salt. He was sent to the London school 
called Christ's Hospital, where he remained seven 
years. Here he found Coleridge a fellow-pupil, 
and from this friendship, which was retained 
through life, he drew much comfort and some in- 
spiration. After leaving Christ's Hospital, Lamb 
secured a clerkship in the South Sea House, and 



150 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

two years afterward he took a somewhat higher 
position in the India House. Here he spent most 
of his life, from ten to four each day, he tells us, 
"thirty-three years' slavery," with his heart pressed 
against the "desk's dead wood." 

His life had another kind of bondage, however, 
besides the slavery of the desk. An inherited in- 
sanity developed into fits of madness in his sister 
Mary, and made her his life-long care. Neither 
Lamb nor his sister married, but they lived to- 
gether in lodgings and houses in different parts 
of London. When Mary was well, everything 
went pleasantly. They kept open house on 
Wednesday evenings of each week, and their 
.friends — Wordsworth, Coleridge, Hazlitt, and 
others — would drop in if they happened to be 
in town, or found it convenient, and a charming 
entertainment would result. But there was for- 
ever the shadow on the hearthstone, and many 
dark days for Charles Lamb, as his sister was 
again and again led away to a madhouse. 

Lamb's Writings. — Very early in his life Lamb 
showed a taste for literary work, but it was not 
until 1820 that he wrote the essays that have made 
his name live. In that year he began in the Lon- 
don Magazine a series of papers which he signed 
"Elia," adopting the name of a former clerk in the 
South Sea office. These papers were collected 
and published in book form later, under the title, 
Essays of Elia. They are sketches suggested by 
everyday events, by recollections, and by fancies. 



THE WAVERLEY NOVELS. 151 

The Dissertation on Roast Pig, Dream Children, 
Old China, and Poor Relations are examples of 
his best work. Besides the Essays of Elia, Lamb 
wrote critical essays on pictures, plays, etc. 

The adjective charming applies most fittingly 
to Lamb's writings, especially the Essays of Elia. 
He is one of the most delightful humorists in 
English literature. He combines the style of 
Goldsmith and Addison, and adds a quality of 
heart and humanity all his own. He is simple 
and graceful in expression. In an age which 
showed many instances of rebellion against the 
old order of things, he delighted to read authors 
who lived two centuries previous, and something 
of their style crept into his. 

The Novels of Sir Walter Scott. — We have said 
that when Scott gave up telling romantic tales in 
verse he told them in prose. His first novel was 
called Waverley. It appeared anonymously in 18 14, 
and created a sensation hardly paralleled in litera- 
ture. He now wrote other tales in quick succes- 
sion; on an average, one each six months for more 
than ten years. He kept his authorship a secret 
until 1826 — the literary world spoke of him as 
The Great Unknown ; he grew rich, and spent his 
money beautifying the estate of Abbotsford, which 
he had bought in 181 1 ; he was made a baronet, 
and was universally admired. 

In all, Scott wrote twenty-nine novels. Those 
written after 1826 were written under the pressure 
of financial difficulties, which made the work 



152 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

drudgery to him. In the year last mentioned 
occurred the failure of a publishing house in 
which Scott was interested. He was too honor- 
able to evade his debts by taking advantage of the 
bankrupt law, and resolved to pay off by his pen 
his share of the liabilities, the sum of half a million 
dollars. His death, in 1832, found the greater 
part of the money paid, and the admiration of 
the world his reward for his honest act. 

As Scott was a romanticist in poetry, he was 
likewise one in prose. His novels are based mainly 
on historic facts, but he has picked out those facts 
which are in themselves romantic, and has grouped 
about them incidents and characters which add life 
and color to the scenes. Of his historic novels, 
the Monastery, Ivanhoe, and Kenilworth are good 
representatives. His novels which are not. historic 
furnish traditions and pictures of Scottish life. Of 
these, Guy Mannering, Rob Roy, and the Heart of 
Midlothian are among the best. 

As a novelist Scott shows imagination, close ob- 
servation of nature, and fine descriptive powers. 
His characters are drawn from the outside only, 
and fail to satisfy the deep thinker ; but they are 
distinct, interesting, and varied. 

Jane Austen (1775-1817). — Miss Austen, who 
stands with Scott as a prominent novelist of this 
period, approaches the realistic type of fiction. 
Her aim is to show life as it really is, and not 
with the glamour of romance thrown over it. Her 
work consists of six novels, the most famous of 



HENRY HALL AM. 1 53 

which are Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, 
and Emma. These are novels of society life, and 
are records of what Miss Austen saw and heard in 
the country town where she lived. Her novels 
lack the rapidity of movement which we find in 
Scott's, but she exhibits a subtler analysis of human 
character, and, as Scott himself acknowledged, a 
more exquisite touch, which gives a charm to the 
simple incidents which she relates. 

Miss Austen was the daughter of a clergyman. 
She lived nearly her whole life in Steventon, 
Hampshire, where she was born. Her novels 
appeared anonymously, and no one suspected her 
of authorship. 

Henry Hallam (1777-1859) was born at Windsor. 
His contributions to the Edinburgh Review brought 
him into notice as a writer of the first rank, but it 
is as an historian that he stands preeminent. He 
published the View of Europe during the Middle 
Ages (18 1 8), Constitutional History of England 
(1827); and the Literature of Europe in tlie 
Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and SeventeentJi Centuries 
(1837). His work is more truly literature than 
most of the histories that preceded it. It shows 
careful research, accuracy of statement, critical 
ability, judicial fairness, and liberal principles. 
Macaulay called the Constitutio7ial History the 
most impartial book that he had ever read. 



154 



ENGLISH LITERATURE. 



READING FOR CHAPTER IX. 

Robert Burns. — Read The Cotter's Saturday Night, Tarn 
O'Shanter, Highland Mary, For a" That and a" That, A Red, 
Red Rose. 

William Blake. — Songs : Memory hither come, Piping 
down the Valleys Wild, Mad Song, The Lamb. 

Wordsworth. — Sonnet on Milton, Intimations of Immor- 
tality, The Solitary Reaper, The Daffodils. 

Coleridge. — The Ancient Mariner, Christabel. 

Scott. — Marmion, Ivanhoe, or Guy Mannering. 

Byron. — Prisoner of Chillon, The Ocean, from Childe 
Harold, Canto IV., Stanzas 178-185. 

Shelley. — Ode to Liberty, To a Skylark, The Cloud. 

Keats. — The Eve of St. Agnes ; To a Nightingale. 

De Quincey. — Levana and our Ladies of Sorrow, Flight 
of a Tartar Tribe. 

Lamb. — Dissertation on Roast Pig from Essays of Elia. 



LITERATURE OF THE AGE OF REVOLUTION. 



Poetry. 

1. George Crabbe, 1754-1832: 

The Parish Register, 1807. 

2. Robert Burns, 1759-1796: 

The Cotter s Saturday Night, 
1785 ; Tarn O'Shanter, 1790 ; 
Songs. 

3. William Blake, 1757-1827 : 

Songs of Innocence, 1789. 

4. William Wordsworth, 1770- 

1850 : The Prelude, 1799- 
1805 ; The Excursion, 18 14 ; 
Sonnets. 

5. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 

1772-1834 : The Ancient 
Mariner, 1798; Christabel, 
1816. 

6. Robert Southey: Wat Tyler; 

The Curse of Kehama, 18 10. 

7. Sir Walter Scott, 1771-1832: 

Lay of the Last Minstrel, 



1805; Marmion, 1808; The 
Lady of the Lake, 18 10. 

8. Lord Byron, 1788-1824 : Childe 

Harold, 1812. 

9. Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1792- 

1822: The Cenci, 1819, 
Prometheus, 1820 ; Adonais, 
1821. 

10. John Keats, 1795-1821 : En- 

dymion, The Eve of St. 
Agnes. 

11. Walter Savage Landor, 1775- 

1864: Hellenics, 1847. 

12. Thomas Campbell, 1777-1844: 

Pleasures of Hope, 1799. 

13. Thomas Hood, 1798-1845: 

The Song of the Shirt. 

14. Thomas Moore, 1779-1852: 

Lalla Rookh, 1827. 

15. Leigh Hunt, 1784-1859: The 

Story of Rimini, 18 16. 



SUMMARY. 



155 



Prose. 

1. Samuel T. Coleridge, 1772- 

1834 : Lectures, Essays. 

2. Charles Lamb, 1775-1834 : 

Essays of Ella, 1822-1833. 

3. Walter Savage Landor, 1775- 

1864 : Imaginary Conversa- 
tions, 1824; Pericles and 
Aspasia, 1836. 

4. William Hazlitt, 1778-1830: 

Lectures on English Litera- 
ture, Critical Essays. 

5. Thomas De Quincey, 1785- 

1859: The Confessions of an 
English Opium Eater, 1821 ; 
Essays. 

6. Sir Walter Scott, 1771-1832 : 

Essays. Novels : Waver ley, 
Ivan hoe, Kenilworth, The 
Heart of Midlothian. 

7. William Godwin, 1756-1836: 

Caleb Williams (Novel), 
1794 ; Political Justice, 1793. 

8. Jane Austen, 1775-18 17 : Pride 

and Prejudice, Sense and 
Sensibility. 



9. William Beckford, 1759-1844 : 
Vathek. 

10. Maria Edgeworth, 1767-1849 : 

Castle Rackrent. 

11. Jane Porter, 1776-1850: The 

Scottish Chiefs. 

12. Mary Russell Mitford, 1787- 

1855 : Our Village. 

13. Henry Hallam, 1777-1859: 

View of Europe during the 
Middle Ages, 18 18; Consti- 
tutional History of England, 
1827; The Literature of 
Europe in the ijth, 16th, 
and ijtk Centuries, 1S37. 

14. Jeremy Bentham, 1748-1832: 

Principles of Morals and 
Legislation. 

15. Thomas Robert Malthus, 

1766- 1 834 : The Principle of 
Population. 

16. David Ricardo, 1772-1823 : 

Principles of Political Econ- 
omy. 

17. James Mill, 1773-1836 : Analy- 

sis of the Human Mind. 



CHAPTER X. 
THE MODERN PERIOD, 1832- 

SOVEREIGNS OF THE PERIOD. 

William IV. . . . 1830-1837. Victoria .... 1837-1901. 

Edward VII 1901- 

The Modern Period was ushered in by the pas- 
sage of the Reform Bill (1832), which gave the 
British people more just representation in Parlia- 
ment, and by acts which freed the slaves in the 
English colonies (183 3), and corrected abuses among 
the English laboring classes. It therefore began 
as an age of reform and progress, and as such it 
has continued. 

In regard to thought, this period is scientific, 
philosophic, and sceptical. It weighs all theories, 
social, political, religious, and seeks to find the 
truth. It is influenced by German ideas, and the 
investigations and speculations of such men as 
Jeremy Bentham, Charles Darwin, Thomas Hux- 
ley, and Herbert Spencer. 

It is an age of fine intellectual prose and much 
thoughtful poetry. The names which stand high 
in literature are so many that one is bewildered at 
every turn. The reviews continue to exert a strong 
influence, and through them many writers bring 
their works before the public. 

156 



CHARLES DICKENS. 1 57 

THE PROSE. 

The novel is the most popular prose form of this 
period. It is to the moderns what the drama was 
to the people of the sixteenth century. In it a per- 
son can find almost any picture of real or ideal 
life which he chooses to have. He has history 
spread before him in the novels of Bulwer-Lytton; 
delineation of character in the novels of Charlotte 
Bronte; the reforms of the period in Walter Be- 
sant; fine analysis of action and thought in George 
Meredith; the pure romance and sensational stories 
from the pens of others. The three novelists that 
stand out most prominently — Dickens, Thackeray, 
and George Eliot — are the ones that we shall dis- 
cuss particularly. 

Charles Dickens (18 12-1870) was the first of the 
three mentioned to come into public favor. He 
was born at Landport, near Portsmouth, the son 
of John Dickens, a clerk in the Navy Pay Office. 
Part of his early life was spent at Chatham; in 
1 82 1 he came with his parents to live in London. 
A year after, as his father was in pecuniary diffi- 
culties, Dickens went to work in a blacking estab- 
lishment, pasted labels, and did other work which 
might be expected of a boy of ten. 

From 1824 to 1826 he had an opportunity to 
attend school ; then he became office boy for an 
attorney. Afterward he studied shorthand, and 
at nineteen was reporter for the True Sun. Later, 
he reported for several other papers, and fur- 



158 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

nished, also, imaginative sketches. In 1836 some 
of these sketches were published in book form, 
entitled Sketches by Bos. In 1837 another series 
of sketches, which had been written for a comic 
artist, appeared in book form. These sketches 
were the Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. 

After the publication of the Pickwick Papers, 
Dickens's fame was assured. From this time on 
he wrote many stories, long and short, and money 
in large sums came to him. His long stories 
usually appeared in serial form, some of them in 
the two papers which he edited, Household Words 
and All the Year Round. 

Dickens's life was uneventful. He married in 
1836, visited America in 1842, and again in 1867. 
During his last visit he read in public from his 
writings. This was a style of entertainment for 
which he was admirably fitted, as he had great 
dramatic talent. He began public readings in 
1853, and continued them until his death. He 
was kindly and cheerful in disposition, with a 
great flow of animal spirits. He rests in West- 
minster Abbey, the best beloved of all English 
writers, except Scott. 

In all, Dickens wrote sixteen novels. David 
Copperfield is generally considered his best. A 
Tale of Two Cities by some critics is considered very 
fine work, and by others it is given low rank. 
Nicholas Nickleby has always been very popular. 

Characteristics. — A distinguishing feature of 
Dickens's style is humor. Nowhere is it more 




WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY 
181 1-1863 



WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY. 159 

delightful than in Pickwick Papers, but we find it 
all through his works. Pathos is also present, and 
strong imagination. This imagination, which is 
often fantastic, caused Dickens to seize upon some 
striking characteristic in an individual and exag- 
gerate it till it became caricature. Thus in his 
novels there is a great array of odd, humorously 
conceived characters. He had strong love of 
humanity. This led him to write stories which 
aimed to show existing evils, and which really 
brought about certain reforms. His natural dispo- 
sition, as well as his great literary success, led him 
to look on the bright side of life. His philosophy 
seems to be, "Be good, and love mankind; all 
things will turn out well if you give them time 
enough." 

William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863), al- 
though a humorist, differs from Dickens in many 
respects. 

In the first place, his start in life was different 
He was born in Calcutta of a good family, was 
educated at the Charter House in London, and at 
Cambridge. He inherited a small fortune, and in- 
tended to become an artist. He went to Germany 
and to Paris to study, but as he was careless and 
incorrect in his drawings, he gave up art as a pro- 
fession. It is customary to relate at this point that 
Thackeray once offered to illustrate some sketches 
for Dickens, but that his work was refused on ac- 
count of its poor quality. 

Thackeray lost his fortune while still a young 



l6o ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

man, and turned to writing for support. He con- 
tributed to Preiser's Magazine, and the famous Snob 
Papers to Punch, but he became popular much more 
slowly than Dickens. He had not so much faith 
in humanity, nor so cheerful a theory of life, and 
people were not attracted at first. Then, too, he 
felt uncertain about himself and what he wanted 
to do, and lack of a steady aim prevented progress. 
He did not really gain a literary footing until 
Vanity Fair was being published, in monthly num- 
bers, from 1846 to 1848. 

Thackeray's life was as uneventful as that of 
Dickens. In 1845 he travelled for his health in 
the East. In 185 1 he delivered lectures in Eng- 
land on the English Hitmorists of the Eighteenth 
Century. These lectures he afterward repeated 
in America, which he visited twice, once in 1852 
and again in 1855. His last years were made sad 
by the insanity of his wife. 

His Literary Work. — Of the fifteen novels which 
Thackeray wrote, Vanity Fair, Pendennis, The Neiv- 
comes, and Henry Esmond are the best. Vanity 
Fair is considered his masterpiece. 

In humor, Thackeray is distinctly a satirist. He 
satirizes customs, ideas, and human relations. His 
style is refined, though it is sketchy and journal- 
istic in spirit; His strength lies more in the por- 
trayal of life than in the development of plot. 
His characters, which are drawn from the upper 
class, are not made real by caricature and exag- 
geration of eccentricities, but by traits and habits 



GEORGE ELIOT. l6l 

of action. He never makes his characters perfect, 
but represents them as people appeared to him in 
real life. 

George Eliot (1819-1880), whose real name was 
Mary Ann Evans, was a woman of genius and 
great literary power. She was born at Arbury, 
Warwickshire. Her father, whose name was a 
synonym for trustworthiness, began life as a car- 
penter, then became a forester, and finally a land 
agent. 

The future George Eliot began to read the best 
books early in life. At the age of seven she 
read Waverley, and wrote a conclusion to suit 
herself. She learned everything with ease. At 
fifteen she left school and studied at home. She 
took up Latin, Greek, French, German, Italian, 
Hebrew, and music, and became a thorough scholar. 
When she was still a young woman, her father 
moved to the vicinity of Coventry, where she met 
the Bray family, under whose influence she re- 
nounced the views of her early religious training 
and became unorthodox in her theology. In 185 1, 
in connection with Mr. Chapman, she edited the 
Westminster Review, and thus came into contact 
with the bright minds of the period. Through the 
Westminster she met Mr. George Henry Lewes, a 
literary man who exerted a great influence over 
her. In 1880 she married Mr. John Walter Cross. 

At the suggestion of Mr. Lewes, in 1856, George 
Eliot began her story-writing with Scenes of Cleri- 
cal Life. In 1859 Adam Bede appeared, and hence- 



1 62 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

forth George Eliot took an assured place among 
English novelists. 

Her Novels. — George Eliot's novels have more 
plot than those of Thackeray or Dickens, and more 
seriousness of purpose. They are well planned. 
Her characters do not remain the same from the 
beginning of the book to the end, but show growth 
of soul, and develop into good or bad men and 
women, according to the characteristics which they 
possess. She points out the motives which lead to 
action, and, in short, writes what is called the psy- 
chological novel. Her views of life were colored 
by the teachings of the French philosopher Comte, 
and by the scientific views of the age. She be- 
lieved that individuals develop according to fixed 
laws ; that he who leads a life of selfishness is im- 
moral; and that the wrong-doing of one drags down 
to destruction many an innocent person — and her 
stories illustrate these ideas. With all her serious- 
ness, however, there is a rich vein of humor in her 
books, which reveals itself chiefly in the epigram- 
matic speeches of her characters. 

Many critics consider Middlemarch her greatest 
novel, but from an artistic standpoint Adam Bede 
and Silas Mamer are the best. For biographical 
information, the Mill on the Floss is interesting, 
besides being pleasing as a story. 

THE ESSAYISTS. 

The essayists. of this period are many, and their 
subjects are various. In fact, the essay is a close 




QoKrrjjLst&ssl' 



THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY. 163 

rival of the novel in popularity. The four names 
that we shall consider in this chapter — Macaulay, 
Carlyle, Ruskin, and Arnold — stand for different 
departments of thought. 

A religious and literary movement which occurred 
at the beginning of this period, and which is called 
the Oxford or Tractarian Movement, might properly 
be classified here, but we have not space to enter 
into details in regard to it. It was a phase of the 
romantic movement which showed itself in a re- 
action against the evangelical and rational spirit of 
the age, and which led some thinkers to return to 
the Roman Church. It originated at Oxford, and 
was propagated in part by means of tracts ; hence 
its name. Prominently connected with it was John 
Henry Newman. 

Thomas Babington Macaulay ( 1 800- 1 8 59) was an 
easy-going, benevolent, upright, prosperous English 
gentleman, who was neither a revolutionist nor a 
scientific seeker of truth. He was a fine example 
of the Englishman who is satisfied with life as he 
finds it. He therefore stands apart from the literary 
men who were living in his youth, and those who 
controlled thought in the middle of the century. 

He was not only an essayist, but a writer of history 
and verse as well. His special equipment for his 
work came through his wide reading and wonderful 
memory. He knew Paradise Lost by heart, could 
rewrite some of the old novels from memory, and, 
years afterward, could repeat stray poems which he 
had read in newspapers. 



1 64 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

He was born at Rothley Temple, the son of 
Zachary Macaulay, who was a strong advocate of 
the abolition of slavery in the English colonies. 
He was educated at first by private tutors, and was 
left to himself in his selection of books. He had 
a passion for novel reading, but acquired a sound 
knowledge of the classics. He was graduated at 
Trinity College, Cambridge, and then took up the 
study of law. 

In 1830 he entered Parliament in the service of 
the Whigs, and made speeches on the Reform 
Bill. He continued in Parliament, with several 
recesses, until the time of his death. In 1857 he 
was raised to the peerage as a tribute to his high, 
blameless character and literary distinction. He 
never married, but made his home with his sister, 
to whom he was very devoted. 

Essays and History. — Before he was ten years 
old Macaulay had written much verse and prose; 
but his real literary work did not begin until the 
close of his college career. After several modest 
contributions to the magazines, in 1825, he made a 
decided hit by publishing his Essay on Milton in 
the Edinburgh Review. 

Two breaks in his parliamentary career are of 
special literary importance. During the first one, 
from 1834 to 1838, he was in India as a government 
official. Here he found some leisure to write, and 
gained many ideas which he used afterward in his 
famous essays on Clive and Warren Hastings. 
The second rest from Parliament, which occurred in 



THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY. 165 

1847, was occasioned by his defeat in the district 
which he wished to represent. It resulted in giving 
him time to bring before the world his History of 
England, which had been planned some years 
before. It was an immensely successful work, and 
set the example for a new style in writing history. 

Macaulay believed in writing history in as fasci- 
nating a way as Scott wrote his historical novels, 
and he succeeded in doing it. With wonderful 
imaginative power he pictured the characters and 
scenes of the past and made them real. The 
History may really be considered the essays en- 
larged, for in his essays he wrote chiefly of men 
of thought and men of action, and used a large 
amount of amplifying material, and the history fol- 
lows the same plan. It is not without the fault of 
prejudice and the general faults of the essays, but 
it is a great work, as the essays are great essays. 

Poems. — Macaulay's verse consists principally 
of The Lays of Ancient Rome, published in 1842. 
They tell in spirited narrative form the stories of 
the legendary period of Roman history. They are 
full of action, and are especially attractive to young 
people. 

Style. — The style is the most distinguishing 
feature of Macaulay's work. It differs from that 
of his predecessors in general, in being more vivid 
and lively, and more easily understood. He makes 
strong contrasts and startling effects ; he is very 
clear and specific ; introduces many names as ex- 
amples ; waxes eloquent and periodic at times ; is 



1 66 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

absolutely sure of himself in conclusions, and 
writes on and on, like* a gentleman of leisure. He 
is not philosophic nor contemplative, and he is 
often called shallow; but the general public found, 
and still finds, him delightful. 

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) presents a striking 
contrast to Macaulay, not only in the circumstances 
of his life, but in his disposition, thought, and style 
of writing. 

He was born of peasant parents on a farm in 
Ecclefechan, Scotland; was reared in the strict 
doctrines of the Calvinistic faith, and stuggled with 
poverty, not only to complete his education at the 
University of Edinburgh, but in order to get a 
start in life. He taught school for a while ; but the 
work was distasteful to him, and in 18 18, conclud- 
ing that it were " better to perish than continue 
schoolmastering," he went to Edinburgh, took 
private pupils, studied law, and tried his hand at 
literature. He wrote articles for the Edinburgh 
Encyclopedia, and made translations from the 
German, but success was slow in coming. 

In 1826 he married Jane Welsh, a bright young 
woman who encouraged his literary efforts. She 
took him to her farm at Craigenputlock, where in 
quiet and seclusion he wrote and studied for six 
years. In 1834 Carlyle and his wife settled in 
London, which remained their home for the rest 
of their days. 

His Writings. — As a writer, Carlyle was both 
preacher and prophet. He could not write in 




THOMAS CARLYLE. 



THOMAS CARLYLE. 167 

good-humored ease, like Macaulay, of things as he 
saw them on the surface ; but looking beneath the 
material prosperity and reforms of the time, he 
cried out that the age had forgotten God. He 
wrote much, criticising sham in religion, society, 
government, and work. He disapproved of the 
age in which he lived ; of its scientific movements ; 
of its attempt at money getting ; of its lack of wis- 
dom ; of its conceit ; its stupidity and idleness. 
He advocated silence, reverence, worship, work. 
He wrote many volumes, but in them all there is 
a repetition of these ideas in different guises. 

Sartor Resartus, — the tailor retailored, — which 
appeared first in the magazines and was published 
in book form in 1838, is Carlyle's most original cry 
of protest. The style of the book is metaphorical. 
Under the name of Clothes he discusses matters in 
general. Man himself and his whole terrestrial 
life are but an emblem, or clothing, for the Divine. 
The book exhorts the reader to look beneath the 
surface and find the spirit in everything. A part 
of it is biographical. 

Famous essays are on Burns, RicJiter, Scott, and 
Voltaire. Hero Worship appeared in 1841 and 
made the world acquainted with Carlyle's admira- 
tion of strong leaders. Cromwell is a character 
that he especially admired, and Cromwell* s Letters 
and Speeches was published in 1845. 

Like Macaulay, Carlyle wrote histories as well 
as essays, but he differs greatly from Macaulay in 
style. The French Revolution has been called 



168 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

Carlyle's greatest book. It is a series of dramatic 
pictures, vivid and forcible ; but, like his other his- 
torical work, Frederick the Great, it is not the easy, 
entertaining reading of the History of England. 

Style. — Carlyle's style is especially noted for 
force. This is brought about partly by the use 
of picturesque terms and figures of speech. He 
is highly metaphorical in expression. His study 
of the German language, and his natural rough- 
ness of disposition, produced in his later writings 
a rough, broken, shaggy structure of sentence 
which is often hard to understand. He shows 
neither rhythm nor artistic form, but his great 
earnestness and sincerity atone for all defects. 
Upon the thought of his time his influence has 
been very great. 

John Ruskin(i 8 19-1900) was a man after Carlyle's 
own heart, for he too spoke out against the materi- 
alism and lack of spirituality of the age. Ruskin, 
however, differs greatly from Carlyle in the cir- 
cumstances of his early life, in the variety of his 
interests, and in his style of expression. 

His parents were Scotch, but he was born in 
London, and the suburbs of that city were the 
home of his childhood. His father was a wine 
merchant in good circumstances, who perceived 
that his son was too precocious to send to a school, 
and therefore had him educated by the best pri- 
vate tutors. During the long summer months his 
parents took him on delightful driving tours, both 
to Scotland and on the Continent, where a natural 



JOHN RUSKIN. 169 

love for art was stimulated. He was graduated 
at Oxford in 1842, and soon after began literary 
work. 

Art Critic. — He acquired fame very early, for in 
1843 appeared the first volume of Modern Painters 
which set the artists and people of London in a 
furore of excitement. This book was a vindication 
of the work of the artist Turner, and with the other 
volumes that followed it led to a revolution in 
landscape painting, besides awakening a general 
love of beauty through his interpretation of Nature. 
He taught that an appreciation of beauty is not 
dependent upon the mind or senses, but upon the 
heart. Ruskin wrote many volumes on art until 
i860. The thought running through all his books 
is, Art should be true to Nature, and man true to 
God. 

Social Reformer. — In i860, through the working 
out of his own principles and his reading of the 
books of Carlyle, Ruskin turned his attention to 
the needs of humanity and became a social re- 
former. He believed the present system of society 
is based on selfishness ; he criticised as wrong the 
modern ways of thinking and of acting. In place 
of the present system he would have society and 
government based on the fundamental principles 
of Christianity ; he would have cooperation in 
labor, and a paternal government controlling the 
intellectual as well as the social life of the people. 
The reforms which he started, and the expression 
of his ideas in regard to them, led some people to 



170 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

think him insane. It is as an art critic that he 
did his greatest work and had the most benign 
influence. 

Style. — Ruskin's style in his first books is highly 
ornamental and poetic, full of word pictures and 
rich in color. The following description of mosses 
on rocks will give some idea of his wealth of lan- 
guage. He says : — 

" They will not conceal the form of the rock, but will gather 
over it little brown bosses, like small cushions of velvet made 
of mixed threads of dark ruby silk and gold . . . until it is 
charged with color so that it can receive no more ; and instead 
of looking rugged, or cold, or stern, or anything that a rock is 
held to be at heart, it seems to be clothed with a soft, dark 
leopard skin, embroidered with arabesques of purple and 
silver." 

His last writings show a plainer, simpler style 
of expression. He has none of the oddities and 
mannerisms of Carlyle, and when at his best he 
holds his readers spellbound with his rush of 
words and images. 

Matthew Arnold ( 1 822-1 888) is prominent both 
as a poet and as a writer of essays. 

He was born at Laleham, and was educated 
partly at Rugby, where his father, the celebrated 
Dr. Arnold, was master. He was graduated at 
Oxford, taught for a short time at Rugby, became 
private secretary to Lord Landsdowne, and in 1851 
was appointed Inspector of Schools, a position he 
held until two years before his death. From 1857 
to 1867 he was Professor of Poetry at Oxford. In 
1883 he visited America as a lecturer, 



MATTHEW ARNOLD. 171 

Poetry. — As a poet Arnold reveals the mental 
unrest of his time. He believed that poetry should 
be a criticism of life, — that it should interpret life, 
— and as he himself was filled with the scepticism 
of the age in which he lived, he had no strong 
faith with which to sing of the things that he saw 
or felt, as he looked abroad upon the world. It is 
with a tone of sadness — 

" Weary of myself, and sick of asking 
What I am, and what I ought to be," 

that he puts his thoughts in verse. 

Besides the lack of exhilaration which one finds 
in the tone of his poetry, there is a lack of attrac- 
tiveness, also, about the subjects which he chooses. 
His poems suit the scholar rather than the general 
reader, and thus they enjoy a loneliness of position 
akin to the loneliness of soul which existed in the 
man who wrote them. They are intellectual rather 
than emotional. We find in them no strong surges 
of passion, no feeling of — 

"the fiery glow 
That whirls the spirit from itself away. 1 ' 

Nevertheless, Arnold stands high among the poets 
of his age. There is a pleasing delicacy and pre- 
cision about his verse, and a call for self-reliance 
in his thought, even though there is no pointing 
upward with the hand of faith. SorJiab and Rustavi 
is a good example of what Arnold can do in narra- 
tive poetry ; Self-Dependence, Dover Beach, and 
Rugby Chapel are among his best shorter poems. 



172 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

Essays. — It is, however, as a writer of critical 
essays on literary subjects that Arnold has his 
chief influence. He had in his own mind definite 
standards of perfection, and by these he judged 
the literary work of which he wrote. It has been 
said that he was the most deeply imbued with the 
spirit of Greek culture of all the men of letters 
of his time, and he was stanch and unyielding in 
his adherence to that culture. " The true prose 
is Attic prose," he said, and by the standard of 
Greece he measured both prose and poetry. He 
is skilled in analysis. He proves his points in 
regard to a writer by dissecting the writer's mind, 
soul, environment, and the age in which he lived. 
His style is clear, calm, refined, as his classic taste 
told him it should be. With his ideal of perfec- 
tion, however, he cannot but be sad as he looks at 
men and their efforts. It is often with the air of 
a lost cause that he points out the good and the 
bad, and sometimes a spirit of bitterness creeps in 
and shows itself in sarcasm, and in sharp cuts at 
men and things that do not meet his approval. 
Essays in Criticism, On Translating Homer, and 
the Study of Celtic Literature show representa- 
tive work. 

THE POETRY. 

The poetry of this period represents the general 
characteristics of the age, — the scientific spirit, 
the religious unrest, the continuance of romanti- 
cism. Alfred Tennyson and Robert Browning 
reach the highest poetic excellence. 



ALFRED TENNYSON. 1 73 

Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892) was the son of a 
clergyman. He was born at Somersby, in Lin- 
colnshire, received a good secondary education, 
and then entered Cambridge University. His col- 
lege friend was Arthur Henry Hallam, the son 
of the historian. This friendship afterward told 
powerfully in Tennyson's poetry. 

After leaving college, Tennyson lived in various 
places, for some years in London, where he became 
acquainted with Carlyle, who saw promise of 
greatness in him. In 1850 he was married, and 
in the same year was made poet laureate. As his 
verses became popular, he was annoyed by visit- 
ors, and in order to escape them, in 1853 he settled 
at Farringford, on the Isle of Wight. He kept this 
home until his death; but in 1867, to avoid the 
curious still further, he bought a place in Sussex, 
which he called Aldworth. Several trips were 
made to the Continent ; but the last half of Ten- 
nyson's life was spent mainly between his two 
homes, in quiet meditation in his libraries and gar- 
dens. In 1884 he was made a peer, with the title, 
Baron of Aldworth and Farringford. 

His Poetry. — Tennyson's popularity as a poet 
grew slowly but steadily, from the publication of 
his first volume in 1827 to the first instalment of 
Idylls of the King in 1858. There was a dreamy, 
sensuous beauty about his first poems which 
pleased, but the critics complained of lack of 
depth. In 1833 a change came when his friend 
Arthur Hallam died. This bereavement, as well 



174 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

as other sorrows, brought a more serious mood 
into his verse. Dating from this time we have 
the writing of the short poems in commemoration 
of the death of his friend, which were printed, in 
1850, under the title In Memoriam. In this col- 
lection of poems Tennyson expresses the different 
moods of feeling through which his spirit passes, 
until at last he sings : — 

" Forgive my grief for one removed, 

Thy creature, whom I found so fair," — 

until at last he feels again that God is good, and 
that all things have for him the smile of love. 
This poem is considered one of the noblest elegies 
in existence. 

But it must not be thought that Tennyson wrote 
nothing except In Memoriam from 1833 to 1850. 
He wrote much, though he looked upon a great 
deal of his verse as experimental, and made no 
attempt to print it. In 1842 Morte cT Arthur, 
lady Clare, and Locksley Hall appeared, and in 
1847 the Princess was published. All these 
poems helped to give Tennyson a place in the 
hearts of the people. 

When the Idylls of the King appeared, however, 
his popularity reached a high point. Ten thou- 
sand copies of the poems were sold in a few weeks, 
and Prince Albert wrote asking for the poet's 
autograph, and expressing his delight in the 
legends. They tell in epic form the old story of 
King Arthur, which Sir Thomas Malory had told 




TENNYSON 
!8C9-;892 



ROBERT BROWNING. 1 75 

so well nearly four hundred years before. Tenny- 
son gave a spiritual interpretation to the legends, 
and made them represent the progress of man 
from a lower to a higher nature. The beautiful 
language which he uses, the artistic conception, as 
well as the interest of the tales as mere stories, 
make the Idylls well repay many readings. 

Dramas. — Beginning in 1875, Tennyson pub- 
lished a series of dramas : Queen Mary, Harold, 
and Becket ; but they can hardly be called success- 
ful acting dramas, whatever poetic qualities they 
may possess. They are good studies of historic 
characters, nevertheless, and were highly regarded 
by Tennyson himself. 

Characteristics. — Perhaps we can best sum up 
Tennyson's characteristics as a poet by calling him 
an artist. In expression he is noted for melody 
and pictorial power. Through right choice and 
grouping of words he produces the most exquisite 
music, and with a few phrases fitly chosen he 
skilfully paints a place or scene. His verse struc- 
ture varies in form. Sometimes we have the grand 
sweep of Miltonic blank verse, and again pure lyric 
sweetness in new or rarely tried measures. His 
lyrics alone would stamp him as an artist. Tears, 
Idle Tears, the Bugle Song, Sweet and Low, and 
the delightful snatches throughout Maud are 
examples in evidence. 

Robert Browning (i 8 1 2-1 889) did not attain 
popularity as a poet until much later in life than 
Tennyson. 



176 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

He was born of wealthy parents at Camberwell, 
a suburb of London, and was educated at London 
University, as his family were Nonconformists. 
At an early age he began to write poetry, and 
when only eight years old he had determined to 
become a poet, a painter, or a musician. The 
poet triumphed, and he devoted his whole life to 
verse-making. 

After various trips to the Continent, in 1846 he 
married Elizabeth Barrett, a poet of note, to whom 
he had been attracted by her writings. Imme- 
diately after their marriage, Browning and his 
wife went to Italy, and that country was their 
home until Mrs. Browning's death in 1861. After 
that year Browning made his home in London, 
though he died in Venice, at the palace which he 
had purchased for his only son. 

Poetry. — Browning's poems fill many volumes. 
As a poet he is strikingly dramatic. He delights 
in sketching characters who are often real historical 
persons, but who are sometimes mere creations of 
his fancy, or are taken from old forgotten stories. 
These characters he has woven sometimes into 
regular dramas, as in Pippa Passes, Colombe's Birth- 
day, and A Blot on the 'Scutcheon. Sometimes 
they stand alone in poems and talk to themselves, 
or to other characters who are not represented, 
making what is known as the dramatic monologue. 
Mr. Browning is particularly conspicuous for this 
latter form of poem ; My Last Duchess and Andrea 
del Sarto are good examples. 



ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING. 177 

His greatest dramatic work, though not a regu- 
lar drama, is the Ring and tlie Book (1869), a poem 
of nearly twenty-two thousand lines of blank verse, 
in which the story of a murder in Rome, committed 
one hundred and seventy years before, is told in 
eleven different ways by eleven different persons. 

Browning has also done fine lyric work. His 
ability to sing songs continued even to the publi- 
cation of his last volume of poems in 1889. Gen- 
eral favorites are: One Word More, the Last Ride 
Together, and the Lost Leader. 

Characteristics. — Tennyson is noted for the 
sweetness and smoothness of his verse ; Browning 
for broken, rugged structure which reminds one of 
Carlyle's prose. This form of expression makes 
his thought difficult of comprehension, and it is 
partly because of his obscurity that Browning's 
popularity came late, and that he is still a sealed 
book to many who are familiar with the other 
great poets. 

As a student of the human soul, Browning takes 
first rank. He delights in revealing the thoughts 
and feelings of his characters at the time when a 
critical moment in their lives has been reached. 
He has depth and great skill in analysis. He 
lacks the art of Tennyson, but his poetry is highly 
stimulating. 

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1809-1861), the wife 
of Robert Browning, was so popular a poet in 1850, 
when Wordsworth died, that there was talk of 
making her poet laureate instead of Tennyson. 



178 ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

From her fifteenth year she was an invalid from 
injuries received in attempting to saddle her horse, 
and most of her life was spent quietly in her own 
rooms. She was a great student, and read books 
in many languages. 

Her poetical works contain translations from the 
classics, dramas, lyrics, and sonnets, as well as 
a novel in verse, Aurora Leigh. Some critics call 
this latter poem her greatest work, while others 
give first place to the sonnets. These are expres- 
sions of her love for her husband, and are called 
Sonnets from the Portuguese, though they are orig- 
inal work. A very popular lyric is the Cry of the 
Children. Mrs. Browning possesses much sweet- 
ness and gentleness of expression, and a large 
sympathy for humanity. She holds with Christina 
Rossetti the first place among the woman poets of 
England. 

The Pre-Raphaelite Movement is given last place 
because it is the last noteworthy movement which 
has affected poetic art. It is the outcome of the 
romantic movement, and originated among some 
London artists, who, influenced by Ruskin's Mod- 
ern Painters, believed that the purest form of 
pictorial art could be found among the painters 
who worked before the time of the great Italian 
artist, Raphael. They found in the poetry of 
Keats the most harmonious illustration in literature 
of their artistic principles, and, inspired by him, 
they wrote verses while they painted. 

In 1850 they established a monthly journal 



SUMMARY. 179 

which they filled with their drawings and writings. 
Their motto was simplicity and fidelity to Nature. 
They aimed at interpreting the spiritual, which 
they believed pervaded all things, and went back 
to the Middle Ages for inspiration and subjects 
for their verse. The result of their poetic attempts 
has been a great deal of musical verse, and con- 
siderable amazement on the part of critics from 
time to time. Representatives of the movement 
are Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828- 1882), author of 
the Blessed Damozel, Sister Helen, Sonnets ; Wil- 
liam Morris (1 834-1 896), Defence of Guinevere, the 
Earthly Paradise ; Algernon Charles Swinburne 
(1837- ), Queen Mo ther and Rosamond; Christina 
Rossetti (1830-1895), Goblin Market, Sleep at Sea, 
Time Flies. 

READING FOR CHAPTER X. 

Dickens. — The Cricket on the Hearth-, selections from 
Pickwick ; David Copperfield, if an entire work is desired. 

Thackeray. — Description of Becky Sharp, from Vanity 
Fair. 

George Eliot. — Silas Marner. 

Macaulay . — Essay 071 Milton ; the trial scene in Warren 
Hastings. 

Carlyle. — Essay on Burns : in Sartor Resartns the Ever- 
lasting Yea. 

Ruskin. — Anlntrodnction to the Writings of John Ruskin, 
by Vida D. Scudder, is excellent for giving one an idea of 
the different phases of Ruskin's work. In the Two Paths, 
pp. 102-104, read a description of a scene in the Middle 
Ages; Modern Painters, Vol. IV., pp. 133-134; Vol. III., 
Part IV., Sec. 51. 



i8o 



ENGLISH LITERATURE. 



Arnold. — Read Dover Beach ; the Study of Poetry in 
Essays in Criticism. 

Tennyson. — The Brook; the songs from the Princess; 
the Passing of Arthur from Idylls of the King. 

Browning. — Wanting is — What?, My Star, Home 
Thoughts from Abroad, Prospice. Read also Herve Riel 
and Incident of the French Camp. 



MODERN ENGLISH LITERATURE, 1832. 



Poetry. 

1. Alfred Tennyson, 1809-1892: 

In Memoriam, Idylls of the 
King, Locksley Hall. 

2. Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 

1 806-1 861 : Aurora Leigh, 
1856 ; Sonnets. 

3. Matthew Arnold, 1822-1888 : 

Sorhab and Rustum. 

4. Arthur Hugh Clough, 1819- 

1861 : The Bothie of Toberna- 
Vuolich. 

5. Robert Browning, 1812-1889: 

Pippa Passes, Colombe's 
Birthday, The Ring and the 
Book, Lyrics and Songs. 

6. Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1828- 

1882 : The Blessed Damozel, 
Sister Helen. 

7. Christina Rosetti, 1830-1894: 

Goblin Market. 

8. Algernon Charles Swinburne, 

1837- : Queen Mother, Ata- 
lanta in Calydon, The Gar- 
den of Proserpine. 

9. William Morris, 1834-1896 : 

Defence of Guinevere, The 
Earthly Paradise. 

10. Sir Edwin Arnold, 1832- : The 

Light of Asia. 

11. Henry Austin Dobson, 1840- ; 



At the Sign of the Lyre % 
1885. 

12. James Thompson, 1834-1882: 

The City of Dreadful Night, 
1874. 

13. Jean Ingelow, 1830-1897 : 

High Tide on the Coast of 
Lincolnshire. 

14. Alfred Austin, 1835- : Lyrics. 

15. Andrew Lang, 1844- : Ballads 

in Blue China, 1880. 

16. William Watson, 1858- : Eng- 

land My Mother, The 
Prince's Quest, 1880. 

17. Rudyard Kipling, 1865- : The 

Seven Seas, The Reces- 
sional, Barrack Room Bal- 
lads. 

Prose. 
I. The Novel. 

1. Sir Edward Lytton, 1805- 

1873 : The Last Days of 
Pompeii. 

2. Charlotte Bronte, 1816-1855 : 

Jane Eyre, 1847. 

3. William Makepeace Thack- 

eray, 1811-1863: Vanity 
Fair, 1847. 

4. Charles Dickens, 1812-1870 : 

David Copper field, 1849. 



SUMMARY. 



181 



5. George Eliot, 1819-1880 

Adam Bede, 1859. 

6. Benjamin Disraeli, 1804-1881 

Endymion, 1880. 

7. Elizabeth Gaskell, 1810-1865 

Cranford. 

8. Charles Lever, 1806-1872 

Charles O'Malley. 

9. Dinah Mulock Craik, 1826- 

1887 : John Halifax, Gen 
tleman. 

10. Wilkie Collins, 1824-1889 

The Woman in White. 

11. Charles Kingsley, 18 19-1875 

Hypatia, 1853. 

12. Anthony Trollope, 1815-1882 

Bar Chester Towers. 

13. Charles Reade, 1814-1884 

Put Yourself in His Place. 

14. Richard D. Blackmore, 1825- 

1900 : Lor?ia Do one. 

15. George Macdonald, 1824- : 

Robert Falconer. 

16. Walter Besant, 1838-1902: All 

Sorts and Conditions of Men. 
ij, George Meredith, 1828- : The 
Egoist. 

18. Thomas Hardy, 1840- : Far 

from the Madding Crowd. 

19. William Black, 1841-1898 : 

A Daughter of Heth. 

20. Robert Louis Stevenson, 1850- 

1894: David Balfour. 

21. Mrs. Humphry Ward, 1851-: 

Mar cell a. 

22. Hall Caine, 1853- : The 

Manx?nan. 

23. Rudyard Kipling, 1865- : 

Jungle Books. 

24. Isaac Zangwill, 1864- : The 

Master. 

II. History. 
1. Thomas B. Macaulay, 1800- 
1859 : History of England, 



2. George Grote, 1794-1871: 

History of Greece. 

3. Henry Hart Milman, 1791- 

1868 : History of the Jews. 

4. Henry Thomas Buckle, 1821- 

1862 : History of Civiliza- 
tion. 

5. James Anthony Froude, 1818- 

1894: History of England. 

6. Edward Augustus Freeman, 

1 8 23-1 892 : History of the 
Norman Conquest. 

7. John Richard Green, 1837- 

1883: A Short History of 
the English People. 

8. Thomas Carlyle, 1795-1881 : 

The French Revolution ; 
Frederick the Great. 

9. William Lecky, 1838- : His- 

tory of England in the 
Eighteenth Century. 

III. Philosophy and Science. 

1. Sir William Hamilton, 1788- 

1856 : Discussions on Phi- 
losophy. 

2. John Stuart Mill, 1806-1873: 

System of Logic. 

3. George Henry Lewes, 1817- 

1878 : Problems of Life and 
Mind. 

4. Herbert Spencer, 1820- : First 

Principles. 

5. Charles Darwin, 1809-1882: 

The Descent of Man. 

6. Sir Charles Lyell, 1797-1875: 

Prificiples of Geology. 

IV. The Essay. 

1. Thomas Huxley, 1825-1895. 

2. John Tyndall, 1820-1893. 

3. John Henry Newman, 1801- 

1890. 

4. Matthew Arnold, 1822-1888: 

Essays in Criticism, 



182 



ENGLISH LITERATURE. 



5. Walter Pater, 1839-1894: 

Studies in the History of the 
Renaissance, 

6. Walter Bagehot, 1826-1877: 

Physics and Politics. 

7. Thomas Carlyle, 1795-1881 : 

Sartor Resartus, Essay on 
Burns. 

8. Thomas B. Macaulay, 1800- 

1859: Essays, on Milton, 
Warren Hastings, and Clive, 



9. John Ruskin, 1819-1900: 
Modern Painters, Stones of 
Venice. 

10. Andrew Lang, 1844-. 

11. Leslie Stephen, 1832- : Hours 

in a Library. 

12. John Addington Symonds, 

1840-1893 : The Renaissance 
in Italy. 

13. Algernon Charles Swinburne, 

1837- : Essays and Studies. 



AUTHORS' NAMES NOT FOUND ON THE MAP. 



Born in London:— 
Bacon, Francis. 
Browning, Robert. 
Byron, Lord George Gordon. 
Chaucer, Geoffrey. 
Defoe, Daniel. 
Donne, John. 
Gibbon, Edward. 
Gray, Thomas. 
Herrick, Robert. 
Jonson, Ben. 
Keats, John. 
Lamb, Charles. 
Milton, John. 
Moore, Sir Thomas. 
Newman, Cardinal John Henry. 
Pope, Alexander. 
Rossetti, Dante Gabriel. 
Ruskin, John. 



Spenser, Edmund. 
Swinburne, Charles Algernon. 

Born in Ireland: — 
Burke, Edmund. 
Goldsmith, Oliver. 
Sheridan, Richard Brinsley. 
Steele, Richard. 
Sterne, Laurence. 
Swift, Jonathan. 

Born in Calcutta, Hindo- 

STAN : — 
Thackeray, William M. 

Place of Birth uncertain : — 
Langland, William, Shropshire. 
Lyly, John, Kent County. 
Surrey, Earl of, Suffolk County. 
Richardson, Samuel, Derbyshire. 



183 



INDEX. 



Ab'sa-lom and A-chit ' o-phel (-kit), 

97, 98, 109. 
Adam Bede, 161, 162, 181. 
Addison, Joseph, 103, 104, 106, 108, 

109. 
Ad-o-na'is, 142. 
Advancement of Lear?iing, 64. 
iElfric, 15. 
iEthelwold, 15. 
Alchemist, The, 72. 
Alexander s Feast, 99. 
Alexandrine, 59. 
Alfred, King, 13-15. 
Alliteration, 19. 

All's Well That Ends Well, 67. 
All the Year Round, 158. 
America, discovery of, ^j. 
Amoretti, 57. 

Ancient Mariner, 134, 154. 
Ancren Riwle (rool), 22, 23. 
Andrea (an-dra'ya) del Sarto, 176. 
Angles, 2, 3, 6. 
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 14, 15, 

23- 
Anglo-Saxon literature, 4-15. 
Anglo-Saxons, 2. 
Arcadia, 61, 119. 
Ar-e-o-pa-gif i-ca, 85, 88, 92. 
Ariosto, 53. 
Ar-ma'da. 
Arnold, Matthew, 170, 171, 172, 180, 

181. 
Arthur, King, 19-20, 40, 58, 85. 
As You Like It, 67. 
Au'reng-zebe' , 99. 
Aurora Leigh (lee), 178, 180. 
Austen, Jane, 145, 152, 153, 155. 



Bacon, Francis, 54, 63. 

Ballads, 41, 42, 43. 

Baxter, Richard, 88, 92. 

Beau'mont, Francis (bo) ,73. 

Becket, 175. 

Becket, Thomas a, 30. 

Bede, 13, 14, 15. 

Bentham, Jeremy, 156. 

Beowulf (ba'o-wolf) , 5-8, 15. 

Be-sant', Walter, 157. 

Blake, William, 130, 144. 

Blank verse, 47, 87. 

Blessed Damozel, The, 179, 180. 

Blot on the 'Scutcheon, A, 176. 

Boc-cac'cio (-kat'cho), 30. 

Bo-e'thi-us, 14. 

Bron'te, Charlotte, 157. 

Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, 177, 

180. 
Browning, Robert, 172, 175-177, 

180. 
Brut, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23. 
Bugle Song, The, 175. 
Bulwer-Lytton, 157. 
Bunyan, John, 79, 90, 91, 92. 
Burke, Edmund, in, 114, 117, 118, 

126. 
Burney, Frances, 121. 
Burns, Robert, 130, 131, 132, 154. 
Butler, Samuel, 93, 109. 
Byron, George Gordon, 138-141, 

154. 

Casd'mon (kad), 9-10, 15. 
Canterbury Tales, 30, 31, 32, 33, 53. 
Ca-rew', Thomas, 81, 92. 
Carlyle, Thomas, 166-168, 179, 181. 



185 



1 86 



INDEX. 



Castle of Otranto, 112, 121, 127. 

Cato, 106. 

Cavalier poets, 81. 

Cavaliers, 79, 93, 94. 

Caxton, John, 36, 37. 

Cecilia, 12.1.. 

Celtic literature, 3-4. 

Celts, the, 1-3. 

Cen'ci (chen'chee), The, 142, 154. 

Chaucer, Geoffrey, 28, 29, 33, 34, 
35 ; writings and characteris- 
tics, 29-33. 

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, 139, 
140, 154. 

Christabel, 134, 154. 

Christian Hero, 105. 

Christ, The, 12. 

Cla-ris'sa Harlowe, 120. 

Classic Age, 94. 

Clive, Robert, in. 

Cloud, The, 142. 

Cole'ridge, Samuel, 132, 133, 134, 

i35» 154- 
Col'et, John, 39 
Collier, Jeremy, 106. 
Colombes Birthday, 176, 180. 
Comedy of Errors, 67. 
Complete Angler, 89, 92. 
Co'mus, 83, 84, 92. 
Conciliation with the American 

Colonies, 117, 126. 
Con-fes'sio A-man'tis, 33. 
Confessions of an English Opium 

Eater, 148, 155. 
Conquest of Granada, 99. 
Consolations of Philosophy, 15. 
Constitutional History of England, 

153, 155. 
Cotter s Saturday Night, 131, 154. 
Cowper, William, 122, 123-126. 
Crash'aw, Richard, 81, 92. 
Cromwell, Oliver, 78, 97. 
Cromwell's Letters and Speeches, 

167. 
Crusades, the, 18. 
Cry of the Children, the, 178. 



Cymbeli?ie, 20, 67. 
Cyn'e-wulf, 11, 15. 
Cynthia's Revels, 72. 

Danes, the, 3, 13. 

Daniel, 10, 15. 

Dan'te, 30. 

Darwin, Charles, 156, 181. 

David Copperjield, 158, 179, 180. 

Decameron, 30, 31. 

Decline and Fall of the Ro?nan 

Empire, 126. 
Defence of Guinevere, 179. 
De Quincey, Thomas, 145, 148, 

149, 154, 155- 
Deserted Village, The, 122, 126. 
Dickens, Charles, 157-159, 179, 

180. 
Dictes and Sayings of the Philoso- 
phers, 36. 
Dictionary of the English Lan- 
guage, 116. 
Discoveries, 73. 

Dissertation on Roast Pig, 151, 154. 
Don Ju' an, 140, 141. 
Donne, John, 81, 94. 
Dover Beach, 117. 
Drama, 43, 68, 95, 96, 97, 125. 

first modern plays, 69. 

decline of, 73. 

where the plays were given, 74, 75. 
Dream Children, 151. 
Dr. Faustus, 70. 
Druids, 1. 
Drummond, William, 81, 92. 

Earthly Paradise, The, 179. 

Ecclesiastical History of England, 
14. 

Ecclesiastical Polity, 63. 

Elegy Written in a Country Church- 
yard, 122. 

El-en-e, 12. 

Eliot, George, 161, 162, 181. 

Elizabeth, Queen, 47, 50, 52, 57, 62. 

Emma, 152. 



INDEX. 



I8 7 



En-dym'i-on, 143, 144, 154. 
English Mail Coach, The, 149. 
Ep-i-tha-la' mi-on, 57. 
Erasmus (e-raz'mus), 39. 
Essay of Dramatic Poetry, 100. 
Essay on Man, 102, 108. 
Essays, Bacon's, 65. 
Essays, Carlyle's, 167, 182. 
Essays in Criticism, 172. 
Essays of E'lia, 150, 151, 154. 
Essays, Macaulay's, 164, 179, 182. 
Eu'phu-es (-ez), 119. 
Evelina, 121. 

Eve of St. Agnes, 143, 154. 
Every Man in his Humor, 72. 
Every Man out of his Humor, 72. 
Excursion, The, 136, 154. 
Exodus, 10, 15. 

Faerie Queene, The, 56, 58, 59. 
Fa ire Daffadills, 82. 
Fielding, Henry, 120. 
Fletcher, John, 74. 
Flight of a Tartar Tribe, 149, 154. 
Frederick the Great, 168. 
French Revolution, 128, 129. 
French Revolution, Carlyle's, 167. 
Fuller, Thomas, 89, 90, 92. 

Genesis, 10, 15. 

Gentle Shepherd, The, 112. 

Geoffrey of Monmouth, 20. 

Gibbon, Edward, 126. 

Gipsies Metamorphosed, The, 72. 

Goblin Market, 179, 180. 

Goldsmith, Oliver, 114, 121, 122, 

125, 126. 
Gor'bo-duc, 69. 
Gospel of St. John, 13. 
Gower, John, 33, 34. 
Gray, Thomas, 122, 126. 
Greene, Robert, 61, 69. 
Grocyn (gro'sin),39. 
Gulliver's Travels, 107, 108, 109, 

119, 120. 
Guy Manner ing, 152, 154. 



HaTlam, Henry, 145, 153, 155. 

Hamlet, 67. 

Harold, 175. 

Heart of Midlothian, 152, 155. 

Henry Esmond, 160. 

Henry IV., 67. 

Herbert, George, 81, 82, 92. 

Hero Worship, 167. 

Herrick, Robert, 81, 82, 92. 

Heywood, John, 46. 

Hind and the Panther, 98. 

History of Edward V. and Richard 

III., 40. 
History of England, Hume's, 126. 
History of England, Macaulay's, 

165. 

History of Reign of Henry VIII., 

6 S . 
History of Scotla?id, 126. 
Holy Dying, 88, 92. 
Holy Living, 88, 92. 
Holy War, the, 91, 92. 
Homer, 101. 
Hood, Robin, 41, 42. 
Hooker, Richard, 54, 63. 
Household Words, 158. 
Hu'di-bras, 93. 
Hume, David, 126. 
Hunting of the Cheviot, 42. 
Huxley, Thomas, 156, 181. 
Hy-pe'ri-on, 143, 144. 

Idler, 116. 

Idylls of the King, 40, 173-175, 180. 
Il'i-ad, 54, 101, 102. 
II Pen-se-ro'so, 83, 84, 92, 113. 
Indian E?nperor, 99. 
In Memoriam, 174, 180. 
Inquiry into the Sublime and Beau- 
tiful, 117. 
Interludes, 43, 45, 46, 68. 
F van-hoe, 152, 154, 155. 

yerusalem Delivered, 53. 
Jew of Malta, the, 70. 
Johnson Club, 114. 



i88 



INDEX. 



Johnson, Dr. Samuel, 113-117, 126. 
Jonson, Ben, 71-73. 
Joseph Andrews, 120. 
Ju-li-an'a, 12. 
Julius Ccesar, 67. 
Jutes, 2. 

Keats, John, 46, 142-145, 154, 178. 

Ken'il-worth, 152, 155. 

King John, 167. 

Knight's Tale, 31, 32. 

Kubla Khan, 134. 

Kyd, Thomas, 69. 

La, Belle Dame sans Merci, 143. 

Lady Clare, 174. 

Lady of the Lake, the, 137, 154. 

L' Allegro (lal-la'gro) , 83, 84, 92, 

Lamb, Charles, 59, 145, 149-151, 

154. 155. 

Lang'land, William, 26, 27, 33, 34. 

Last Ride Together, the, 177. 

La'ya-mon, 19-21, 23. 

Lay of the Last Minstrel, 137, 154. 

Lays of Ancient Rome, 165. 

Lear, King, 80. 

Leicester (les'ter) , Earl of, 55, 74. 

Le Morte d' Arthur, 37, 40. 

Le-va'na and Our Ladies of Sor- 
row, 149, 154. 

Lew'es (-is), George Henry, 161, 
181. 

Life and Death of Mr. Badman, 91, 
92. 

Life of Dr. Johnson, 115. 

Life of Nelson, the, 133. 

Linacre (lin'a-ker) , 39. 

Literature of Europe in the Fif- 
teenth, Sixteenth, and Seven- 
teenth Centuries, 153, 155. 

Lives of the English Poets, 116. 

Lives, Plutarch's, 54. 

Locks ley Hall, 174, 180. 

Lodge, Thomas, 61, 69. 

Lost Leader, The, 177. 

Love'lace, Richard, 81, 92. 



Love's Labor's Lost, 67. 

Lowell, James Russell, quoted, 6o- 

Luther, Martin, 37. 

Lyc'i-das (lis), 83, 84, 92. 

Lyl'y, John, 54, 60, 61, 69. 

Macaulay (ma-kaw'H) , Thomas 
Babington, 163-166, 179-182. 

Macbeth, 67. 

Mac-pher'son, James, 112. 

Mal'o-ry, Sir Thomas, 37, 40. 

Mandeville, Sir John, 25, 26, 34. 

Manfred, 140. 

Mansfield Park, 153. 

Mar'lowe, Christopher, 69, 70. 

Marmion, 137, 154. 

Masques, 72. 

Maud, 175. 

Merchant of Venice, The, &j. 

Mer'e-dith, George, 157. 

Metrical romances, 19, 23. 

Middlemarch, 162. 

Midsummer- Night' s Dream, 67. 

Mill on the Floss, The, 162. 

Milton, John, 79, 83-88. 

Miracle plays, 43, 68, 74. 

Modern Painters, 169, 178. 

Monastery, The, 152. 

Morality plays, 43, 45, 68, 74. 

More, Sir Thomas, 40. 

Morley (quoted), 69,70. 

Morris, William, 179, 180. 

Morte (mort) d' Arthur, 174. 

Much Ado About Nothing, 67. 

Murder Considered as One of the 
Fine Arts, 149. 

My Last Duchess, 176. 

Mystery plays, 43, 68. 

Nash, Thomas, 69. 

Nature, 95, 111, 140. 

New Atlantis, The, 65. 

Newcomes, The, 160. 

New learning, 38, 39, 40, 53, 79. 

Nicholas Nickleby, 158. 

Noble Numbers, 82. 



INDEX. 



189 



Normans, the, 16-18. 
Novel, the, 118-120. 
No'vuin Or ' ga-num, 64. 
Nut-Brown Maid, 42. 

Ode on a Grecian Urn, 143. 

Ode on Immortality, 136. 

Ode to the \\ 'est W 'ind, 142. 

Od'ys-sey, 54, 101. 

Old China, 151. 

One Word More, 177. 

0?i Tra?islating Homer, 172. 

Or -I an' do Fu-ri-o'so, 53. 

Or'min, 22, 23. 

Or'??iu-lum, 22, 23. 

Ossian (osh'an), 112. 

Pam'e-la, 120. 

Paradise Lost, 10, 85-87, 92, 95. 
Paradise Regained, 85, 92. 
Paraphrase, Csedmon's, 10, 11, 15. 
Passion Play, 44. 
Peele, George, 69. 
Percy, Thomas, 112, 114. 
Peregrine Pickle, 121. 
Periodical essay, 103. 
Periodicals founded, 146, 147. 
Pickwick Papers, 158, 159, 179. 
Piers the Plowman, 26, 34. 
Pilgrifris Progress, 91, 92. 
Pippa Passes, 176, 180. 
Pitt, William, 11 1. 
Plays and actors, 44. 
Poor Relatio?is, 151. 
Pope, Alexander, 100-103, 108, 109. 
Prelude, the, 136, 154. 
Pre-Raph'a-el-ite movement, 178. 
Pride and Prejudice, 153. 
Princess, The, 174, 180. 
Printing, introduction of, 36, 37. 
Prisoner of Chillon (shil'lon), 140. 
Pro-me' ' theus Unbound, 142. 
Pro-tha-ld'mi-on, 57. 
Puritan Age, 78. 

poetry of, 80. 

prose of, 88. 
Puritans, 51, 78-79, 93, 129. 



Queen Mary, 175. 
Queen Mother, 179. 

Raleigh, Sir Walter, 51, 56. 
Ralph Roister Doister, 69. 
Rambler, 116. 
Ramsay, Allan, 112. 
Rape of Lticrece, 67. 
Rape of the Lock, 101, 108. 
Ras'se-las, 116, 121, 126. 
Refections on the Revolution in 

France, 118. 
Reformation in religion, 37, 38. 
Re-lig'i-o La'i-ci, 98. 
Reliques of Ancie?it English Poetry, 

113- 

Renaissance, the, 39. 
Restoration, the, 79, 94, 97. 
Retaliation, 122. 
Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 114. 
Richard II., 67. 
Richardson, Samuel, 120. 
Ring and the Book, 177, 180. 
Rivals, The, 125. 
Robertson, William, 126. 
Robinson Crusoe, 119, 120. 
Rob Roy, 152. 
Roderick Random, 121. 
Romance, the, 40. 
Romeo and Juliet, 67. 
Rosamo?id (roz'a-mond), 106, 179. 
Ros-set'ti, Christina, 179, 180. 
Rossetti, Dante Gabriel, 179. 
Rugby Chapel, 171. 
Ruskin, John, 168-170, 182. 

Saints' Everlasting Rest, 88, 92. 
Samson Ag-o-nls' tes (-tez), 85, 92. 
Sandys, George, 81, 92. 
Sar'tor Re-sar'tus, 167, 182. 
Scenes of Clerical Life, 161. 
Scholar Playwrights, 69, 70. 
School for Scandal, the, 125. 
Scop (skop), 6. 
Scott, Sir Walter, 136, 145, 151, 

152, 154- 
Seasons, The, 112. 



190 



INDEX. 



Self- Dependence, 171. 
Sentimental Journey, 121. 
Shakespeare, William, 54, 65-67, 

69, 71, 74. 
Shelley, Percy Bysshe (bish), 141, 

142, 154. 
Shepherd's Calendar, 54, 55, 57, 61. 
Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 125. 
She Stoops to Conquer, 125. 
Sidney, Sir Philip, 54, 55, 61, 62. 
Silas Marner, 162, 179. 
Silent Woman, The, 72. 
Sir Charles Grandison, 120. 
Sir Patrick Spens, 42. 
Sir Roger de Cover ley, 104, 105, 119, 
Sister Helen, 179. 
Sketches by Boz, 158. 
Sleep at Sea, 179. 
Smith, Adam, 114. 
Smollett, To-bi'as, 121. 
Snob Papers, 160. 
Sohrab and Kustum, 171, 180. 
Songs of Innocence, 130, 154. 
Sonnet, the, 46, 47. 
Sonnets from the Portuguese, 178, 

180. 
Southey, Robert, 132. 
Spectator, the, 103-105. 
Spencer, Herbert, 156, 181. 
Spenser, Edmund, 54-59. 
Steele, Richard, 103-106, 109. 
Sterne, Laurence, 121. 
Study of Celtic Literature, 172. 
Suckling, Sir John, 81, 92. 
Surrey, Earl of, 46, 53. 
Sweet and Low, 175. 
Swift, Jonathan, 106, 107, 109. 
Swinburne, Al'ger-non Charles, 

179, 180. 

Tale of a Tub, 107, 109. 
Tale of Two Cities, 158. 
Tarn bur-laine , 70. 
Tarn O'Shanter, 131, 154. 
Task, The, 123, 124, 126. 
Taller, The, 103, 105, 



Taxation, 117. 

Taylor, Jer'e-my, 88, 89, 92. 

Tears, Idle Tears, 175. 

Tempest, The, 67. 

Tennyson, Alfred, 172-177, 180. 

Thackeray, William Makepeace, 

159-161, 179, 180. 
Time Flies, 179. 
To a Nightingale, 143. 
To a Skylark, 142. 
To Celia, 72. 
Tom Jones, 120. 
Toussaint VOuverture (too'san'loo' 

ver-tiir'), 136. 
Traveller, The, 122. 
Tristram Shandy, 121. 
Two Gentlemen of Verona, 67. 
Tyndale, William, 38. 

U'dall, Nicholas, 69. 
U-to'pi-a, 40. 

Vanity Fair, 160, 179, 180. 
Vanity of Human Wishes, 117. 
Vaughan, Henry, 81, 92. 
Venus and A-do'nis, 67. 
Vicar of Wakefield, 121, 123, 126. 
View of Europe during the Middle 

Ages, 153, 155. 
Vindication of Natural Society, 117. 
Voiage and Travaile, 25, 26, 34. 
Vol-po'ne, 72. 

Wace, 20. 

Walpole, Horace, 112, 121, 127. 

Walton, Izaak, 89, 92. 

Wat Tyler, 133. 

Waverley, 151, 155, 161. 
Wesley, John, no. 
Whipple, Edwin P., 60. 
Whitefield (whit'), George, no. 
Wilson, John, 147. 

Winter's Tale, 67. 

Wordsworth, William, 133-136, 154. 

Worthies of England, 89, 90, 92. 
Wy'att, Sir Thomas, 46, 53. 
Wyc'liffe, John, 27, 34, 38. 



SFP 29 1903 



